Marie Curie Essay, Research Paper

Marie Curie

1867-1934

Polish-French chemist and physicist

Marie Curie was born Marya Sklodowska, youngest kid of female parent Bronsitwa Boguska, a piano player, vocalist, and teacher, and father Ladislas Sklodowski, a professor of mathematics and natural philosophies. Bronsitwa Sklodowski died of TB when Marya was merely 11 old ages old, go forthing her male parent Ladislas Sklodowski as Marie? s function theoretical account. This is where she became interested in the survey of natural philosophies.

Marya graduated at the top of her high school category when she was merely 15. After graduating she worked eight old ages as a coach and a governess to gain adequate money to go to the Sorbonne in Paris. With her trim clip, she studied math and natural philosophies on her ain and attended what was called a & # 8220 ; drifting & # 8221 ; university, a ill organized, school conducted by Polish professors in rebelliousness of the Russians so in charge of the educational system. Finally, in November 1891, Marya left Poland and registered at the Sorbonne under the Gallic version of her first name, & # 8220 ; Marie. & # 8221 ;

Despite life in hapless conditions that made her ailment on several occasions from deficiency of nutrient and slumber, Marie graduated foremost in her category in the spring of 1893. A twelvemonth subsequently, she received her maestro & # 8217 ; s grade in mathematics, so remained in Paris to carry on some experiments for a Gallic industrial society. Finding the Sorbonne & # 8217 ; s research labs inadequate, Marie set out to larn where she might happen the necessary research lab infinite and equipment. She so found Pierre Curie, a extremely acclaimed professor at the School of Physics. The two scientists shared many of the same beliefs and were instantly attracted to each other. They were married on July 26, 1895.

Marie and Pierre Curie were inseparable, working in the research lab during the twenty-four hours and analyzing together in the eventide. Even the reaching of their girl, Irene, in 1897 hardly interrupted their modus operandi. By this clip, Marie had decided to acquire her doctor’s degree in natural philosophies, and for her thesis she chose to concentrate on the beginning of the beams given off by U, a theory scientist Henri Becquerel had foremost discovered in 1896.

Curie set up her equipment in a little, glass-walled shed at the School of Physics. This is where it is said that she discovered radiation. Tests she performed on certain minerals such as uraninite had high degrees of radiation.

Marie began working on this job during the spring of 1898, and by summer her hubby had devoted his full clip to assist her in her surveies. Restricting their survey to pitchblende because it emitted the strongest beams, they developed a refinement method that required them to treat dozenss of the minerals to obtain merely a bantam sample of radioactive stuff. At last they uncovered a new radioactive component they named Po after where Marie came from ( Poland ) . They so stumbled across

an even stronger radioactive component, which they named Ra. Although they announced their find on December 26, 1898, it wasn? T until March 1902, before they were able to insulate adequate Ra to corroborate its being which helped gain Marie Curie her doctor’s degree ( the foremost awarded to a adult female in Europe ) and both Marie and Pierre the 1903 Nobel Prize in natural philosophies.

With this award came international celebrity and adequate money to pay off some of their fiscal debts ( They had supported the Ra research with their ain money ) . After the birth of her 2nd girl, Eve, in December 1904, Marie rejoined her hubby in the research lab.

Shortly thenceforth Pierre was killed when he stepped into the way of a horse-drawn waggon on a Paris street. After her hubby & # 8217 ; s decease, Marie took over his natural philosophies professor occupation at the invitation of the Sorbonne, doing her the university & # 8217 ; s first adult female module member. In add-on to instruction, Marie besides continued to pass clip in the research lab, she so began to insulate pure Po and pure Ra to take any staying uncertainties about the being of the two new elements. Her success in making so gave her another Nobel Prize in 1911.

Recognizing that her position as a universe known famous person gave her the power to hold an impact on causes, Marie began talking at meetings and conferences throughout the universe, bit by bit going more comfy in the limelight. She found that people were really willing to back up her work, and she had great success as a fund-raiser for the Radium Institute. Marie besides lent her name to the cause for universe peace by functioning on the council of the League of Nations and on its international commission on rational cooperation.

As the 1920s Drew to a stopping point, Marie began to endure about invariably from weariness, giddiness, and a low-grade febrility. She besides experienced a humming in her ears and a gradual loss of seeing that was helped merely partly by a series of cataract operations. Even though a figure of her co-workers who had worked with Ra were exposing many of the same symptoms and others had died at comparatively immature ages of malignant neoplastic disease, for a really long clip Marie could non convey herself to acknowledge that the component she and her hubby had discovered could perchance be at mistake. Soon adequate she did accept the fact that Ra was unsafe, but she continued to work with it anyhow. In the early 1930s, nevertheless, Marie & # 8217 ; s wellness perceptibly worsened, and physicians eventually discovered the cause: baneful anaemia caused by the cumulative effects of radiation exposure. The intelligence was kept from the populace every bit good as from Marie herself, and on July 4, 1934, she died at the mountain sanatorium where she had gone to recover.

In April 1995 Madame Curie and Pierre & # 8217 ; s remains were enshrined in the Pantheon in Paris, France. Madame Curie is the first adult female to be honored in such a manner for the accomplishments she made in natural philosophies.