C MARIE AND PIERRE CURIE

BACKGROUND Marie Sklodowska was born in in Poland during a time of Russian supremacy. She never really had the opportunity for an advanced education after high school, but she saved her very own earned money to help fund her older sister’s medical studies in Paris. She then traveled with her to France in 1891, studying at the Sorbonne. In 1894, she met the French chemist Pierre Curie. After a year, they were married. Although Pierre had already made a name for himself, their career together proved far more successful than his when he was on his own. They spent a large portion of their careers studying radioactivity. They would examine the particles and energy produced as radioactive atoms decayed. This process helped them learn more about the building blocks of matter. They found that the heavy element thorium was radioactive and found that two new elements, polonium and radium, were also radioactive as well. They perfected techniques for extracting radium from samples. In 1906, Pierre was killed in an unfortunate street accident in Paris.

Pierre Curie Before Pierre and Marie met, Pierre was a crystallographer living and studying in Paris. Pierre’s dad educated him and got him interested in mathematics and spatial geometry Pierre worked for, and acquired his licence es sciences at 18 and then proceeded to work as a lab assistant at a lab in Sorbonne He conducted experiments involving pyroelectricty, piezoelectricity, and crystal symmetry After this his work switched to experiments involving magnetism and the transitions between ferromagnetism, paramagnetism and diamagnetism 1894 is when he finally met Marie Sklodowska; his wife to be He and Marie worked on radiology until he was hit and killed by a car on the city streets of Paris France

MARIE CURIE Marie graduated from high school at the age of 15 and was top of her class. When she was 17, Marie became a governess to help fund Bronia’s (her sister) way through medical school in Paris. In July of 1893, Marie earned her master’s degree in physics. Women’s education advocates gave her a scholarship to stay and take a second degree in mathematics. She was awarded it in In June 1903, Marie was the first woman in Europe to earn a doctorate in physics.

The Curie’s efforts led to the discovery of polonium and radium. In 1914, World War 1 begins and Marie works as an X-ray technician, working with mobile X-ray vans and training operators to use and assist the shrapnel removal on wounded soldiers. In 1915, Marie trained doctors to use radium for the treatment of scar tissue, arthritis, and other diseases, including some cancers. FACTS

Marie was invited to the USA in 1921 to receive a gift from the US President, W G Harding. The award represented gratitude for her work in chemistry and physics. The gift was a single gram of pure radium and had been bought as a result of donations from American women. July 4, 1934, Marie Curie, age 66, dies of leukemia due to the large amounts of radiation exposure while working with her materials. Upon the investigation of her laboratory notebooks, traces of radioactivity are discovered within the fingerprints that are all over the pages. Her books are still radioactive to this very day.

WHAT IS RADIATION AND WHAT DOES RADIOACTIVITY HAVE TO DO WITH IT? Radioactivity takes place when unstable atomic nuclei will spontaneously decompose to form nuclei with a higher stability. The energy and particles which are released during the decomposition process are called radiation.

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