THE LIFE OF MARIE CURIE AND THE IMPACT OF HER DISCOVERIES ON THE 21ST CENTURY

The Modern Era was the most extraordinary scientific age, since the Scientific Revolution of Galileo and Newton, birthing exceptional scientists such as Albert Einstein, and Ernst Rutherford, who discovered the Neutron. One noteworthy name among the great scientists of the day, whose work was foundational to scientific fields across multiple domains, was Marie Salomea Skłodowska–Curie. This blog post describes Marie Curie, her scientific work and seeks to elaborate its impact on the 21st century. Marie Curie’s upbringing, scientific career, and legacy reveal her impact on the 21st Century.

Like most humble beginnings, Marie Curie’s played a critical role in shaping the kind of impact she would imprint on history. 1867 was a significant year. Karl Max published ‘Das Kapital,’[13] Alfred Nobel patented dynamite,[1] and Maria Curie Sklodowska was born in Warsaw, Poland to Władysław and Bronisława Skłodowska. The Kingdom of Poland at the time was under Russian control and her father, Władysław Skłodowska, ensured that his children harbored a deep hatred for Tsarist Russia. This was evident when young Marie and her best friend would spit on a monument to the Polish people who submitted to the Russian regime. [10] Marie’s patriotism was a virtue that would influence her later work. Tragically Bronisława Skłodowska lost her life to tuberculosis, at a time when it had no cure. The death of Marie Curie’s mother had a profound effect on her. Marie lost her mother when she was only ten years old and her mother’s death pushed her to question the nature of God and his goodness. In an attempt to contact her mother’s spirit, Marie later in her life turned to spiritualism, a belief in the afterlife and the ability to contact the spirits of the deceased using various mediums. [4]

Young Marie was an exceptionally brilliant child. In addition to her talent her father, who was a math and physics teacher, pushed his children to be nothing less than the best. At a time when women’s education in France was not encouraged until the Jules Ferry Laws were passed in France in 1881, Władysław Skłodowska believed education to be genderless. All his children graduated first in their class with one exception, who graduated second. [4] Marie completed her secondary school at the Russian Gymnasium and found work as a governess. She planned to work as she saved money to attend the Sorbonne, in Paris, because there were limited opportunities for women in higher education in Russia-occupied Poland. Because Marie’s sister did not have enough money for her tuition at the Sorbonne, to study medicine, Marie contributed to her sister’s tuition because she felt her sister was the older and was more desperate to study. Eventually Marie started her studies at the Sorbonne, being one of the only two women studying science at the university. [4] Marie graduated with a degree in physics in 1893 and another one in mathematics the following year. [4]

Marie Curie would come to meet her husband and scientific collaborator, Pierre Currie while studying at the Sorbonne. Pierre Currie came from a family of scientists, with his father being a physician, and his brother becoming a physicist. Pierre and his brother Jacques Currie, studied crystallography, the scientific study of the arrangement and properties of Crystals. [2] In their research, Pierre discovered piezoelectric effects which led him to diverge his research towards magnetism. [7] It so happened that Marie’s early research concentrated on the properties of different materials, including their magnetic properties. Marie found that her lab equipment, at the time, was cumbersome to use. A friend of her sister, Bonya, heard about her struggle with her equipment and recommended that she meet a well-known physicist and professor who had developed the delicate instruments she would need to continue her research. That eminent scientist was Pierre Currie, who she later married on the 26th of July 1895. The birth of her two daughters, Irène and Ève, in 1897 and 1904, did not interrupt Marie’s intensive scientific work. She was appointed lecturer in physics at the École Normale Supérieure for girls in Sèvres (1900) and introduced there a method of teaching based on experimental demonstrations. In December 1904 she was appointed chief assistant in the laboratory directed by Pierre Curie.

After having her first child, Irène, Marie Curie began work on her doctoral thesis and at a time when sixty-five percent of the papers read at the Academy of Science in Paris were dedicated to Röntgen’s X-rays, she was no exception. However, Pierre encouraged her to investigate the abandoned Becquerel rays and helped secure her a lab with his influence as a professor. Marie found her new research challenging. Her results were no different from that of her predecessors. Pierre modified the equipment he and his brother built and spent time teaching Marie how to use it, which required tremendous skill. After analyzing various elements, that produced no rays, she eventually discovered that thorium produced energetic rays similar to uranium. She started to test many compounds, one of which included pitchblende. In 1869 Dmitri Ivanovich Mendeléev, a Russian Chemist, charted all the known elements, into what is known as the Periodic Table. Mendeléev postulated that there was nothing smaller than the atom. Marie started her thesis around the time JJ Thomson discovered electrons and suspected them to be subatomic. Through her research, Marie discovered that there were elements that gave off more radiation than uranium. Due to this fact, she separated the pitchblende and discovered a new element 400 times more active than uranium, which she named Polonium, after her home country. Out of pure excitement, she went on to find another element, and four months later she discovered an element 900 times more active than uranium and named it Radium. [4]

Marie coined the term ‘radioactivity’ after her research. She also tested and found that the radioactivity of an element could not be changed by any chemical process. [4] Radioactivity went against the iron-clad belief that the atom was the smallest indivisible unit of matter. This phenomenon led Ernst Rutherford, a New Zealand-born physicist, to the discovery of the nucleus. Radioactivity gave birth to atomic physics which has led to the study of materials on an atomic scale. The foundational research that Marie Curie did has led to exceptional scientific developments like the invention of semiconductors, which function today as the fundamental technology on which all modern computers are built.[8] Radioactivity has also led to significant advancements in the field of nuclear physics, which has led to the development of nuclear power plants, which generated 778 billion kilowatts and accounted for 18 percent of the electricity generated in the United States alone, in the year 2021. [14]

Marie Curie’s Discoveries in the field of nuclear physics helped unravel the secrets of the atom, which advanced the understanding of nuclear reactions. Marie Curie was able to apply this research to the field of medicine, where she revolutionized medical imaging techniques. Modern medical technology such as X-rays, CT scans, and MRI scans all rely on the properties of radiation, that Mari Curie discovered. Marie Curie and her husband pioneered brachytherapy, the treatment of tumors with radiation emitted from radium, and also provided the radium for the first brachytherapy procedure in 1901.[9] The field of oncology, study and treatment of tumors, branched out of brachytherapy and credits its use of radiotherapy for cancer treatment to the work of Marie Currie.

Marie Curie’s research and advancement in X-rays was quite evident in World War 1. On August 3, 1914, Germany declared war on France and began their invasion, [3] forcing the work to stop at the Curie Institute. [4] Marie’s deep hatred for war and love for the country she now called home, motivated her to be of service to her country. Wounded soldiers would return to Paris, and would often have to have their limbs amputated, due to a lack of X-ray equipment in the hospitals and the field. This problem inspired Marie Curie to create mobile X-ray units that would function as a battle-front hospital, designed to diagnose the wounded before receiving treatment. Female drivers and technicians were not permitted on the front lines, and Marie Curie lacked vehicles to use, but with the use of her scientific influence, she was able to overcome these barriers and received funding from the Union of Women in France. [5] Marie Curie and her daughter Irene, trained 150 women X-ray operators to manage the ‘radiological vehicles’, which were known as ‘little Curies.’ [5] That November, French causalities on the battlefield numbered 300,000 dead and 300,000 wounded, but through Marie Curie’s war effort, an estimated 1,000,0000 wounded soldiers received an X-ray examination. [5]

Marie Curie’s work included the manufacturing of radium, a radioactive element that was used in medicine and industry. The Curies founded The Curie Institute, which was the first research institute dedicated to the study of radioactivity. The Curie Institute was far more advanced than its peers. It produced large quantities of radium with less waste at lower costs. The radium manufactured by the institute was distributed to other scientists, medical professionals, and helped advance the research of others in the fields of academia and medicine.

The legacy of Marie Curie spans beyond her scientific work. She was not just a great researcher, and relentless in her work, but she also set many standards in her field, that are still in use today. When the international science committee was looking for an international standard, Earnest Rutherford vouched that the standard Marie used was the standard they should adopt, and in 1911 the ‘Curie’ became a scientific unit, [12] used to measure the intensity of radioactivity in a material. Marie Curie’s work also standardized the procedure for the separation of radium and the classifications of its properties.

Marie Curie’s legacy had a significant impact on women’s empowerment. She faced many challenges in her carrier and was often undercut in accreditation towards her achievements. She was the first female professor of physics at the Sorbonne and was a trailblazer in her field of study, in a heavily predominantly male field, and inspired other women including her daughter to peruse careers in science.[4] Her daughter, Irène, followed in her footsteps and became a scientist, and her granddaughter, Hélène, also became a physicist. Marie Curie’s fame transitioned from that of a scientist to becoming a popular face for women’s emancipation largely in the West. She became the champion for women empowerment organizations that would fund her research.

One of the most significant events in Marie Curie’s life was being awarded the Nobel, twice! Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first person to win it twice in two different categories. She was awarded for her work in physics in 1903 and her work in chemistry in 1911. To attain this awards, Marie Curie faced significant challenges from her close friends and colleagues to the Nobel committee. One family friend and colleague, Gabriel Lippman, disregarded Marie Curie’s nomination for a Nobel. Pierre Curie informed the Nobel committee that he would not accept the Nobel Prize unless his wife would be recognized for her contribution to the study of radioactivity. Although concessions were made, Marie still had to share the prize between her and her husband, as opposed to receiving a separate award for her own contribution.[4]

The life of Marie Curie was nothing short of extraordinary. Her exceptional work ethic and grit enabled her to become one of the greatest scientists of her age. Her discovery of the elements radium and polonium led her to publish groundbreaking research on radioactivity. Her discovery of radium led to advancements in the medical field, where radium was used to perform operations on tumors. Her work on mobile x-rays helped save the lives of thousands of wounded soldiers on the battlefield. The quality of research Marie Curie published, served as a base for various scientific standards such as the Curie unit, which is still used today. Her research has been foundational to both the fields of physics and chemistry and her legacy serves as an inspiration to many scientists, including women who were minority figures during her time.

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