Marie conducted numerous experiments confirming Becquerel's observations that the electrical effects of uranium rays are constant, regardless of whether solid or pulverized, pure or in a compound, wet or dry, or whether exposed to light or heat. He received his PhD in March 1895, along with a promotion to a professorship at the Municipal School, and the couple married three months later.įor her own doctorate, Marie chose to focus on the mysterious uranium rays discovered in early 1896 by Henri Becquerel, a few months after Wilhelm Roentgen's discovery of x-rays. It was Marie who encouraged Pierre to write up this latter work as a doctoral thesis. Today, the temperature at which permanent magnetism disappears is known as the "Curie point." Pierre later discovered a fundamental relationship between magnetic properties and temperature. They used this effect to build a piezoelectric quartz electrometer to measure faint electric currents, which Marie would use in her research. They found that when pressure is applied to certain crystals, they generate electrical voltage, and when placed in an electric field, those same crystals became compressed. He earned a master's degree by age 18, and three years later discovered the piezoelectric effect with his older brother, Jacques. The son of a respected physician, Pierre had the benefit of private tutoring as a child, soon demonstrating a passion and gift for mathematics. In the spring of 1894, Marie's search for laboratory space led to a fateful introduction to Pierre Curie, a scientist some 10 years her senior who had done pioneering work on magnetism. Although her math and science background was woefully inadequate, Marie worked hard to catch up with her peers, and eventually finished first in her master's degree physics course, also earning a second in mathematics the following year. Marie set out for Paris, in the fall of 1891 to pursue studies at the University of Paris' prestigious Sorbonne. She worked as a governess for several years, helping pay for Bronya's tuition at medical school in Paris.įinally, it was her turn. Instead, she, her sister Bronya, and several other friends attended a "floating university": an illegal night school whose classes met in changing locations to evade the czarist authorities. Marie could not enroll at the University of Warsaw women were not admitted. The family was poor, but her father exposed Marie and all her siblings to the classics of literature, as well as science. Her father was a schoolteacher who had lost his prestigious position because of his pro-Polish sentiments at a time when Poland was divided up among Austria, Prussia and czarist Russia. Pierre and Marie Curie made history not only in that respect, but also because their scientific teamwork led to the discovery of radioactivity and two new elements in the periodic table, for which they shared the Nobel Prize in Physics.Ī native of Poland, Marie Curie was born Maria Sklodowska. Women physicists were a rarity in the 19 th century, but even rarer were husband-and-wife collaborative teams. The copyright notice is on the website image only and not on the printed poster.Pierre and Marie Curie shortly after their wedding. This poster is 17 inches wide by 22 inches high, vibrant orange and generous black ink lushly printed on parchment stock. The Wall Street Journal's headline "The Radium Water Worked Fine Until His Jaw Came Off" was essentially the death knell for all radium products. He eventually ended up consuming close to 1,400 bottles at $1.00 each between 19 before eventually dying in 1932 of radium poisoning at the age of 51.īy then he had not only lost his zip but most of his teeth from bone decay, his body was covered with abscesses and he weighed 92 pounds. amateur golf champion, it was Byers physician who urged him to take Radithor to help heal a recent sports injury.īyers was so convinced of its health benefits that he readily consumed up to three of the 2.2-ounce bottles a day. One rather famous product was known as Radithor which was heavily promoted by a millionaire steel tycoon named Eben Byers.Ī sportsman and U.S. Radium or radon laced water was called "liquid sunshine" because it was considered to be a magical elixir that could not only promote health and vigor, but prolonged life. During the early 1900s, radium was once considered more valuable than gold.
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