By: Danisha Larson

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By: Danisha Larson

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MARIE CURIE

By: Danisha Larson

PHYSICS 1010: Term Paper 2

Abstract

This report is about a famous scientist, Marie Curie. Marie Curie sacrificed much time and her health to finish school. As a result of her ambition in becoming a scientist, she was the first woman scientist to win a Nobel prize in chemistry. Her husband was a great support to Marie as he was her partner through her career. Maries daughter was her legacy as she too followed her mother’s career path also winning a Nobel prize.

Table of Contents

Introduction4

Early and Family life4

Career Path 4

Personal views/perspective

Accomplishments and Awards

References

“I believe that Science has great beauty. A scientist in his laboratory is not a mere technician; he is also a child confronting natural phenomena that impress him as though they were fairy tales."

– Marie Curie –

Introduction

Marie Curie (née Maria Sklodowska) was born in Warsaw, Poland on November 7 in 1867. Both her mother and father worked to support their family. Her mother worked as a secondary school teacher and her father was a professor of math and physics. Marie was the youngest of 5 children.

Early and Family Life

Curie started school differently than other students, she had lost her mother at age 11. Her mother had been diagnosed with a stage of tuberculosis that couldn’t not be cured quick enough. However, Curie was strong and worked hard in school. Even though she was the top student of her secondary schooling, she was not able to apply at the University of Warsaw because it was a men-only school. With only one income for the family school was difficult to come around; so Curie decided to be involved in a Students Revolutionary Organization. This organization began a “floating university”. These were classes that were held in secret, underground. A deal was made with her sister in order to be able to pay for school; Curie would work while her sister would go to school and visa versa.

Then in 1891, Curie knew she needed to go to school some place where she could get her degree and begin her career. She concluded that Paris offered her a way. Curie enrolled at College Sorbonne in Paris. Although Curies desire put a toll on her health, in order to pay for school Curie would live on bread and tea.

Career Path

In 1893 Curie completed her master's degree in physics, and in the following year received another degree in mathematics. Curie began working with different types of steel and studying the numerous properties of magnetics. As her study progressed she began to realize that she would need a lab. Upon looking for a decent lab to work in, a friend of hers introduced her to a French Physicist named Pierre Curie. Curie and Pierre began working together in inadequate lab conditions; considering they were both working as teachers to earn a decent living on the side in order to survive.

Curie was interested in Becquerel’s work. He

While Marie wanted to add to Becquerel’s work, she had a vision of her own as she began to conduct experiments using uranium rays. What she found when analyzing the rays was that the rays persevered disregarding the form or condition of the uranium. The result of this experiment would only mean that the rays were coming from the atomic structure of uranium. This was a great find, so great that it created the field now known as “Atomic Physics”. Curie described this marvel as radioactivity. Curie’s husband then decided to put his own work aside in order to help Marie with her on-going work in the field of atomic physics. They began by working with a variety of the mineral uraninite which originally was once uranium dioxide that was altered by radio-active decay. This mineral contains many different radioactive elements. In the midst of their experiments, Curie gave birth to a daughter, Irene, in 1897. Then the following year Curies new radioactive element was found, she named this element Polonium after her home country. After which Curie and her husband discovered another new radioactive element which they named radium. In order to prove the elements existence, Curie and Pierre, made one decigram worth of radium in 1902.

2nd daughter eve and then husband died in 1906 then another nobel prize for chemistry this time. 1911.

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member of the Conseil du Physique Solvay from 1911 until her death and since 1922 she had been a member of the Committee of Intellectual Co-operation of the League of Nations.

WW1 broke out in 1914. Curie wanted so much to help in any way possible. She and her daughter Irene worked together using radium as a pain reliever. She also sHad daughter Irene who assisted her in Maries work in WW1 to relieve pain with use of radium. Wanted to establish radioactivity laboratory in native city. When World War I broke out in 1914, Curie devoted her time and resources to helping the cause. She championed the use of portable X-ray machines in the field, and these medical vehicles earned the nickname "Little Curies." After the war, Curie used her celebrity to advance her research. She traveled to the United States twice— in 1921 and in 1929— to raise funds to buy radium and to establish a radium research institute in Warsaw. All of her years of working with radioactive materials took a toll on Curie's health. She was known to carry test tubes of radium around in the pocket of her lab coat. In 1934, Curie went to the Sancellemoz Sanatorium in Passy, France, to try to rest and regain her strength. She died there on July 4, 1934, of aplastic anemia, which can be caused by prolonged exposure to radiation. Her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie followed in her mother's footsteps, winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935. Joliot-Curie shared the honor with her husband Frédéric Joliot for their work on their synthesis of new radioactive elements.

Awards

1903 Won first nobel prize with husband and assistant for work with radioactivity. First woman to receive The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911 was awarded to Marie Curie "In recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element".

in 1929 President Hoover of the United States presented her with a gift of $ 50,000, donated by American friends of science, to purchase radium for use in the laboratory in Warsaw.

References

Lectures, N. (n.d.). Marie Curie - Biography. Nobelprize.org. Retrieved April 30, 2013, from

Nobel Foundation. (n.d.). The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911. Nobelprize.org. Retrieved April 30, 2013, from

Marie Curie. (2013). The Biography Channel website. Retrieved 10:48, Apr 29, 2013, from

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