PHY100 — Life of a Great Physicist: Marie Curie
Early Life and education
- Born: November 7, 1867 - Warsaw, Poland. Nee Maria Sklodowska, her parents were both educators who fostered an interest in science early in the lives of their 5 children-Zofia, Jozef, Bronislawa & Helena
- After completing her secondary education at age 15, she was barred from admission to the University of Warsaw where her brother Jozef had enrolled.
- She instead joined the students at the ‘Floating University’, a clandestine institution that held classes in private homes. Women had no other recourse to a college education in Poland at the time, but some of the best Polish minds taught secret courses there.
- Maria-Marie after emigrating to France-earned her Master’s degree in Physics in 1893, having arrived in France in the fall of 1891.
- Her search for lab space at the Sorbonne resulted in her encounter with her future husband-Pierre.
The Curies & Radioactivity
- "The fact is very remarkable, and leads to the belief that these minerals may contain an element which is much more active than uranium."-Marie Curie
- This was Marie Curie’s critical observation of the especially active nature of pitchblende. Using an electrometer that Pierre had constructed 15 years earlier, she observed (as had others) that pitchblende was 4X more active than Uranium itself. Postulating that this indicated the presence of a NEW element was her stroke of genius (or one of them).
Extraction of Polonium & Radium
- Pitchblende refers to a "brown to black mineral that consists of massive Uraninite, has a distinctive luster, contains radium, and is the chief ore-mineral source of uranium" (Merriam-Webster Dictionary)
- Two new elements extracted. Polonium was relatively easy to identify and extract-as opposed to Radium which was extremely difficult to extract.
- To obtain Radium the Curies employed a technique called differential crystalization.
- Although Curie predicted its existence in 1898, it was not isolated as a pure metal until 1902. Through electrolysis, a Radium-chloride solution was distilled. This was done using a mercury cathode in an atmosphere of Hydrogen gas
- By this process the Curie’s were able to extract only one tenth of a gram of Radium-chloride from an entire ton of pitchblende.
Polonium
- Can be used as a lightweight heat source for thermoelectric power in space satellites
- Can be mixed or alloyed with Beryllium to provide a source of neurons
- Can be used on brushes for removing dust from photographic films
Involvement in WWI
- Despite her lack of expertise with X-rays or with medical matters, Curie fought to provide the French military with mobile radiology units.
- She and her daughter Irene were the radiology unit operators
The first unit was deployed in 1914
Awards and Accomplishments
- Madame Marie Curie was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes.
- Nobel Prize in Physics (1903)
- Davy Medal (1903)
- Matteucci Medal (1904)
- Nobel Prize in Chemistry (1911)