On December 26, 1898, a 21-year-old woman submitted a scientific research report to the French Academy of Sciences. In this report, she announced to the scientific community that a new radioactive element, radium, has been discovered, which is 1 million times more radioactive than uranium. 5 months earlier, the woman had just announced the discovery of the radioactive element "polonium", such a powerful scientific research ability and results, even made male scientists in the scientific community feel ashamed.
In inspirational essays, we often quote her scientific research deeds, she is also the most familiar female scientist in the hearts of Chinese students, she is "Marie Curie". However, today we do not want to revolve around scientific experiments, but want to read about this extraordinary female scientist from her life deeds and expose the unknown "Marie Curie".
The "lady" of science – Marie Curie
1
Marie Curie was born on November 7, 1867 in Warsaw, Poland, to an ordinary family of secondary school teachers, originally named Marie Skłodowska (hereinafter referred to as "Mary" for convenience). Mary was an avid learner from an early age, especially interested in physics, so the original ideal college was the local Warsaw University.
At that time, the University of Warsaw had obvious "sexism" and was reluctant to admit female students, which led to Mary having to go to Paris to study. It is said that gold always shines, and it is clear that Mary is the golden stone that will eventually bloom, and at the age of 24, she was admitted to the physics department of the Faculty of Science of the University of Paris in 1891.
In 1894, Marie hoped to have a better experimental environment, and at the recommendation of the Polish scholar Professor Joseph, she met Pierre Curie and worked in the laboratory of his School of Physics and Chemistry in Paris. With a good experimental environment, Mary's scientific talent gradually revealed, and in 1895 she published a paper at the Academy of Sciences entitled "The Radioactivity of Compounds of Uranium and Thorium". But because she was a woman, she was not qualified to read the paper in person, but was replaced by someone else.
Mary as a teenager
Think of modern society, where gender differences between men and women are gradually narrowing, women have more and more equal rights. In that era, even a talented scientist like Marie Curie was still limited by "sexism".
Fortunately, in 1895, after a long period of laboratory time together, Marie and Pierre fell in love and were married in the same year. Since then, Marie has followed her husband's surname and become "Marie Curie", which is what people call "Marie Curie".
After marriage, Marie passed the title examination of the Paris Institute of Physics and Chemistry and was assigned to work in the school's physics laboratory, and from then on she and her husband worked more closely on scientific research. In 1898, the Curies announced the discovery of new elements "polonium" and "radium", which caused an uproar in the scientific community. And for the strong radioactive element "radium", people have given strong doubts, since you said that you found this thing, then take it out to show us!
Mary is in the lab with her husband
Practice is the only way to test the truth, in order to extract radium, the Curies had to take out the deposit and sell the property, buy more than a dozen tons of bitumen uranium slag, and devote themselves to the purification experiment. After 3 years and 9 months, tens of thousands of refining experiments, finally accumulated about 10 grams of radium chloride.
Facts speak louder than words, the results powerfully broke the doubts, and in recognition of their contributions to radioactivity research, they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. But no one ever thought that behind the seeming glory, it quietly opened the curtain of Mary's unfortunate life.
2
First, the 1903 Nobel Prize was not awarded to the Curies independently, but to another scientist named Anthony Henry Becquerre. Unlike the Curies, Antony was a true family of scientists, and his father and grandfather were also well-known scientists.
Anthony won the Nobel Prize, which can be said to be a bit of a fluke, because he was the first scientist to discover natural radioactivity, although he mistakenly thought it was just fluorescence. But from the perspective of practical value, Anthony did not make significant research, nor did he refine the theoretical results, and these works were mainly done by the Curies.
Mary in the lab
It is frustrating that in the nomination of the Nobel Prize winners that year, there was no Mary at the beginning, and the first candidate was Anthony. At this time, rumors spread in the scientific community, describing Pierre Curie as "Anthony's assistant" and Marie as "Pierre Curie's assistant", completely ignoring the couple's main contribution to radioactivity research.
In this regard, Mary is a little depressed in her heart, because in the theoretical research in the field of radioactivity, she is actually the real "forerunner". At the time of her publication, Mary was still not married to her husband Pierre, and Pierre joined the realization two years after Mary had studied the elemental radium, and the main effect was to improve the experimental instruments.
Of course, Antony and others did not care about the truth, and they often said to people: "Marie Curie's contribution is to be Pierre Curie's good assistant, which is enough to convince us that God created women and is the best assistant to cooperate with men!" "Look, this is the scientific community of that era, a "patriarchal" scientific community that ignored women's creativity and made them vassals of male status.
Mr. and Mrs. Curie
But in any case, at least Mary is famous as "Marie Curie", and everyone knows that there is such a capable female scientist. However, this happy and uneventful life was soon shattered by a cruel fate, and what awaited Mary would be the most difficult years of her life.
In April 1906, Pierre Curie had an accident on the road and was hit by a horse-drawn carriage and died on the spot. In the 11 years of marriage, Mary never thought that her husband would leave her, and now she has taken her two young daughters and become an "orphan and widow" in the eyes of the world. Who expected that another man, Paul Langzhiwan, would break into Mary's life and even awaken her "dead" love.
Paul was a student of Marie's husband, Pierre Curie, who was also 5 years younger than Marie, and was a very talented scientist. During the period when her husband had just died, Paul became Mary's most trusted work partner and the benefactor who gave her the most help. After Mary refused a pension from the French government for her income from teaching at the Sorbonne, Lang prepared the first class for her.
Lang Zhiwan and his wife
The day and night together, intimate care, so that the two people's emotions gradually deteriorated, from friendship to love. Originally, Paul's intrusion was the best opportunity for Mary to calm her wounds and start a new life. However, Paul is a husband with a wife, and Mary is a widow whose husband has just died, and these two identities are put together, which will inevitably lead to the "other eye" of the world.
3
Lang Zhiwan, who came from a poor background, married the daughter of a grocery store lady in his early years, and their knowledge was far apart, which gradually led to the couple not having a common language. For Lang Zhiwan, what he wants to pursue is fame and scientific achievement, but his wife wants him to give up research and concentrate on earning money to support his family.
The difference between the three views and the pursuit has led to Lang Zhiwan and his wife often quarreling, and even the woman has broken Lang Zhiwan's head, which shows that the relationship between husband and wife is indeed not very harmonious. At first, Mary wanted to persuade Lang Zhiwan, hoping that he would understand his wife more, but found that the contradictions between the two were difficult to reconcile, and she had a true feeling for Lang Zhiwan, and as a result, she persuaded the two to actively divorce.
While promising Mary a divorce, Lang Zhiwan began to live with her, and Mary always referred to the residence as "our place". Unfortunately, Lang Zhiwan not only failed to divorce, but also the private love letters of the two were obtained by Lang Zhiwan's wife, and also leaked to the major media in France.
Giant of science – Marie Curie
For a time, the French scientific community exploded, and the original boring and dull scientists also had such a promiscuous "adulterous affair", which was much more interesting than entertainment gossip. Taking this opportunity, the major media began to report one after another, and published a large number of unrealistic love letters, which triggered further misunderstanding of Marie Curie in the world, believing that her and Lang Zhiwan's "adulterous affair" began long before her husband's death.
Mary also angrily warned the media that they would not invade her privacy, but what she got was that the French attacked her, even smashing the window of her house with stones and shouting "thief" outside! What is even more frightening is that there is a love letter circulating in society, showing Mary's desire for love, which makes the natural romantic French unbearable, calling Mary a "Polish slut".
Just when Mary was called the center of public opinion, Lang Zhiwan chose to separate from Mary and returned to his wife. You think he is confessing to his wife, the truth is that the wife was forced to allow him to have multiple lovers outside in order to keep Lang Zhiwan, one of whom was his young schoolgirl. Mary, who knew the truth, was so miserable that she had to choose to hide in the hospital to recuperate, so as to escape all the storms outside.
Marie Curie in the lab
It is worth mentioning that when Mary fell into the "adulterous storm", the French scientists who had been friends with her changed their positions, unanimously condemned her morally, and demanded that Mary be sent away from the country. Mary's student, Apex, had quarreled with her father over this, and she did not hesitate to cut off relations with his father and guard her mentor, telling the world: "If Mary were a man, none of this would have happened!" ”
This sentence had to cause deep thought, and the private life of scientists at that time was not a few chaotic, such as Mary's lifelong close friend Albert Einstein, who was a mess in his emotional life, but the world did not seem to care about this, only remembered Einstein's great contribution. Maybe it wasn't the wrong thing, it was just that the target was a female scientist, which was enough for society to choose to "attack" her.
4
In July 1914, the outbreak of the First World War forced the attention of the French masses to be diverted, which allowed marie Curie's scandal to be covered up. In the face of the French who forced her to leave and called her a "slut", Mary complained with virtue and responded to those who had hurt her with kindness.
Because Mary believed that radium was the common wealth of science, the Curies gave up their patent applications for radium early on, voluntarily giving up the opportunity to become billionaires. So at the time, Mary was determined to take the Nobel Prize to the bank, and wanted to melt the gold medal in exchange for funds to support the front line, but the bank refused.
After that, Mary took out all the Nobel Prizes and bought the bonds issued by France for the war. In addition to financial support, Mary also hoped that she could help the soldiers on the front line, so she resolutely stopped the research of "radium" and turned to the study of X-rays, because X-rays are more practical on the battlefield.
After the outbreak of World War I, Mary only took two months to master the science of X-ray and human anatomy, and also learned to drive a car, as well as basic car maintenance skills. And all this means that this woman, who should be "vulnerable", is determined to go to the battlefield and show her worth like men in the rain of bullets.
With the support of X-rays, coupled with Mary's careful care, countless officers and soldiers were pulled back from hell. Many warriors do not know who the woman in front of them is, let alone that she has been a two-time Nobel Laureate (won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for purifying metal radium in 1911), but they know that she is an angel, so they affectionately call the small truck driven by Marie Curie "Little Curie".
Mary and rich businessmen friends
Of course, there were countless casualties on the vast battlefield, which was by no means something that Mary alone could save. To do this, she needed more vehicles and more technicians who mastered X-rays to minimize the casualties caused by the war. So Mary called on wealthy friends to donate vehicles and finances, and took her daughter Irena and other women to the front line to prove to the warriors and the unique value of women to the times.
In 1918, the First World War came to an end, and people regained a stable life. Marie Curie, who was in the laboratory at this time, saw the dawn, she opened the window for the first time, hung up the French flag, and drove the "little Curie" to the street to celebrate, and she was even more happy than the French at that moment.
5
In 1921, Cai Yuanpei, the president of Peking University, passed through Paris and had the honor of meeting Marie Curie. Cai Yuanpei deeply felt the charm of Marie Curie, which was different from other women, and invited her to give a lecture at Peking University. Marie Curie was grateful, but still said: "I can't go now, I can plan in the summer!" Unexpectedly, Marie Curie's refusal this time made her lifeless to come to the land of China, and also prevented Chinese students from seeing the best female scientists of our time.
On July 4, 1934, Mary spent her last years in a nursing home, having just finished writing the scientific book "Radioactivity". It was precisely because of her long-term exposure to radioactivity, especially the stage of intensive research for X-rays for the war, that Mary unfortunately suffered from malignant leukemia, which finally terminated the life journey of the great female scientist.
Nobel Prize-winning Mary
It was only after Marie's death that the French government was aware of the merits of X-rays on the battlefield that Marie Curie had saved hundreds of thousands of soldiers, and awarded her a medal of honor. But Mary has long passed away, and no matter how much understanding and honor, what is the meaning to her?
Of course, the scientific wealth that Mary left to the world is only the tip of the iceberg that the world knows, and the rest is sealed in Mary's notebook for recording experiments. Because Mary has been working in a radioactive environment for a long time, her clothes, experimental equipment, and even notebooks are full of strong radioactivity.
Nobel Prize officials have published articles saying that marie Curie's notebook is still radioactive and will last for 1500 years, and even her books and papers can only be stored in lead boxes because of their strong radioactivity. This means that Marie Curie's contribution to the scientific community and the scientific legacy left by people are still a mystery, and they still cannot be fully touched.
It was also after Mary's death that people downplayed the impression of her private life and turned to admire her noble scientific qualities. When Cai Yuanpei, president of Peking University, heard of Madame Curie's death, he sent a condolences in grief: "Surprised to learn of Madame Curie's death, I would like to express my condolences on behalf of the Academia Sinica!" Deeply aware that her passing away is a great loss to the French scientific community, I would like to pay tribute to her family. ”
Marie Curie in her later years
And Marie Curie's lifelong friend in the scientific world, Albert Einstein once said to the world:
Of all the world's celebrities, Marie Curie is the only one who has not been spoiled by fame.
Yes, Marie Curie devoted her life to science and to the world, but the "fame" she had during her lifetime was not glorious, and even made her miserable for a time.
6
Many people have opposed the use of "Marie Curie" to describe Mary, because her real name is easy to forget, but for the Chinese, "Madame" is more of an honorific title, not just a subordinate relationship in marriage. On the other hand, doesn't the well-known title of "Marie Curie" expose the injustices that Marie suffered because of her gender in that era?
Recall Marie Curie's teaching to her daughter:
In a world where men make the rules, they believe that women's roles are sex and procreation.
Is this really the case? Wasn't that what it was then? Even in the field of advocating science and objectivity, female scientists still live so hard and still suffer from gender discrimination, which is evident in the treatment faced by women in other fields.
Today, when we tell the story of Marie Curie's life, we are not purely telling her personal history, but more like recording the efforts she made to correct women's names. Fortunately, modern social thought is progressing, and more and more women have broken through the gender shackles, and they use their abilities and personalities to make men admire and admire. Therefore, in addition to scientific research results, in the emancipation of women's minds, Marie Curie may also be called a pioneer!