If you find two nobel laureates, there are only a few scientists who have won two prizes, marie Curie, Linus Carl Pauling, John Bardeen, and Frederick Sanger.
If you add a few more keywords to these four people, such as the first one or women, it must be Marie Curie.
Marie Curie was enormous in her lifetime, but she only lived to be 67 years old, and she could have lived longer without the study and practice of radioactive theory. In fact, due to her long-term exposure to radioactive materials, Marie Curie suffered from aplastic pernicious anemia in her later years and died not long after.
The news of Marie Curie's death soon spread around the world. The scientific community was shocked by Marie Curie's death, and people in Warsaw, berlin, London, and even in China fell into deep mourning.
After hearing this bad news, Cai Yuanpei, then president of the Academia Sinica, sent a telegram to the University of Paris in French to express his condolences:
Surprised to learn of the passing away of Marie Curie, on behalf of the Academia Sinica, I would like to express my condolences! Deeply aware that her passing away is a great loss to the French scientific community, I would like to pay tribute to her family. Cai Yuanpei.
How did Cai Yuanpei know about Marie Curie and her contributions to science?
This began with Cai Yuanpei's visit to Europe around 1921. As we all know, in the early 20th century, a new cultural movement was launched in Our country, and advanced intellectuals put up the slogans of "Mr. De" and "Mr. Sai." This "Mr. Sai" is a popular term for scientific transliteration, reflecting people's attitude towards science.
In this context, Cai Yuanpei, who had a resume as the education director of the Nanjing Provisional Government, became the president of Peking University and invited many scholars with new ideas to teach at the school. Everyone conducted academic discussions together, opened their hearts, and collided ideas.
In order to absorb the essence of Western science and culture, at the end of 1920, Cai Yuanpei was appointed by the Beiyang government to lead a delegation to visit Europe. In France, Cai Met his old friend Paul Ban Lewei. Ben Lewei is a famous French mathematician who has made many achievements in mechanics and aeronautical theory. He later became the prime minister of France and can be said to be a legend.
In fact, as early as 1914, Cai Yuanpei had already met Ban Lewei when he was studying in France; later, from June to September 1920, when Ban Lewei led a delegation to visit China, he visited Peking University, and Cai Yuanpei directly awarded Ban Lewei an honorary doctorate at Peking University.
Seeing his old friend, Cai Yuanpei naturally asked Ban Lewei to recommend several scholars to visit China. Ban Lewei gave a list of four people, and the first person in the list was Marie Curie.
In Cai Yuanpei's account at that time, we can know that he visited Madame Curie. At the Institute of Radium Studies at the University of Paris, the two men began to communicate. There were many conversations, but they largely revolved around inviting Marie Curie to visit China. Marie Curie had planned to visit the United States, so her visit to China was not possible.
This should not be done in the future summer vacation.
This summer vacation is not enough, can only wait for the next summer vacation. This is Mr. Cai Yuanpei's original words. Basically, it is the meaning of Marie Curie.
Why did Mr. Cai Yuanpei strongly invite Marie Curie to Come to China? In addition to Ban Lewei's recommendation, the author believes that there are several other reasons:
First of all, Marie Curie embodies a true scientific spirit.
Marie Curie was obsessed with science and loyal to it, and spent almost all her life in the laboratory. Throughout her lifelong and unremitting efforts, she has achieved remarkable results. One is to pioneer the theory of radioactivity; the second is to invent the technology of separating radioactive isotopes; and the third is to discover two new elements, polonium and radium. In Cai Yuanpei's view, Marie Curie's theory overturned the basic theory of material immortality that scholars have believed for centuries, which is a real revolution.
However, since the discovery of radium ingots in 1898, the jury has collapsed because of its radiation; the idea of "immortality" is relative rather than absolute.
Secondly, Marie Curie was so famous.
Albert Einstein said: "Of all the world celebrities, Marie Curie is the only one who has not been spoiled by fame. "Where did Marie Curie's fame come from?"
In addition to her pioneering radioactive research and the blameless scientific spirit, there are also some things that keep her in the spotlight. For example, the effect of her own two Nobel Prizes, when Cai Yuanpei visited her, she had already collected these two awards; and like the legend of her daughter and son-in-law winning the Nobel Prize again, people's attention to her has not decreased. Of course, there was also a scandal between her and Lang Zhiwan, and even the front page of the Paris News newspaper reported on this matter in 1911, which caused a storm in Paris and plunged her into the whirlpool of public opinion.
Again, Marie Curie was a woman.
A hundred years ago, not only in the East, but also in the West, there were serious inequalities between men and women in their access to education. Marie Curie is the woman who breaks inequality. She not only taught at the university, but also devoted her life to scientific research and achieved outstanding results in the field of physical chemistry. Worldwide, Marie Curie's efforts have had a great impact on the transformation of people's thinking about equality between men and women.
Mr. Cai Yuanpei vigorously advocates "equal rights for men and women", and does not say with emotion, "In higher education, such as The French Lady Gully (Li) has a number of people?" It is conceivable that if Marie Curie comes to China, it is bound to have a very positive impact on the thinking of the Chinese people.