Curies Marie and Pierre
Marie Curie faced many hardships in her lifetime but managed to become the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize in science, and she remains the only woman to have received two Nobel Prizes. ... Today, Marie Curie is well deserving of the title of the world’s most famous woman scientist. ... Marie Curie, originally named Marja Sklodowska, was born in Warsaw, Poland on November 7, 1867. ... In order to assist in feeding her family, Marie felt obligated to take an outside job. Despite the long hours she put into her work, Marie was still able to win a gold medal for her outstanding academic achievements. Marie had modest views of her accomplishments and stated, "I easily learned mathematics and physics, as far as these sciences were taken in consideration in the school. ... Although Marie was extremely talented, her education was limited because she was a woman. In Marie’s times women weren’t accepted to studies beyond secondary school. ... To support her sister in her medical studies, Marie sent part of her hard-earned money to Bronya. Her help paid off in 1891 when her sister invited Marie to live in Paris with her and her husband. ... Pierre, Marie’s future husband and partner, was born in Paris on May 15, 1859. ... Pierre continued to expand his knowledge at the Sorbonne, after he reached a level of intelligence beyond what his parents were capable of teaching. ... Three years later, Pierre became an assistant teacher at the Sorbonne (Microsoft Encarta. “Curie, Pierre”). During his years as an assistant teacher, Pierre and his brother Jacques researched crystallography, the study of the charge of crystals when they are compressed. Pierre observed that when these crystals were exposed to an electric voltage they would change shape. ... After discovering the piezoelectric effect, Pierre became more intrigued with magnetism. ... “Curie, Pierre”). In July 1895, Marie and Pierre married in Paris. It was a non-religious, simple, small wedding at the town hall in Sceaux, where Pierre’s parents lived. Marie decided against a fancy wedding dress. ... After their marriage, Marie and Pierre developed a strong interest in radiation. ... Marie carried out her studies in a damp storeroom at the Paris Municipal School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry. Pierre, a professor at the school, received permission to use the storeroom. ... Pierre and Jacques had invented the electroscope earlier in their careers. ... Marie Curie pioneered the use of an electroscope to determine the radioactive intensity of an element. ... From her observations of the uranium rays, Marie developed a simple yet revolutionary hypothesis that stated, "The emission of rays by uranium compounds could be an atomic property of the element uranium—something built into the very structure of its atoms.” Marie confirmed Becquerel’s discoveries that the radioactivity of uranium rays is always a constant. Marie Curie coined the term radioactivity from the Latin work radius, meaning ray (Pasachoff). Pierre and Marie collaborated after Marie found that pitchblende and chalcolite, two uranium ores, were far more radioactive than pure uranium. ... Even Marie and Pierre were unaware of the importance. Marie commented, "Neither of us could foresee that in beginning this work we were to enter the path of a new science which we should follow for all our future (Pasachoff). ... The Curies needed tons of pitchblende in order to isolate extremely small samples of a new element. In order to isolate pitchblende the Curies used the latest method known as chemical analysis. ... From isolating pitchblende the Curies discovered two new fractions of bismuth and barium.