1867, Mary was born in Warsaw under the rule of the Russian Empire, and her grandfather and father were both teachers. At the age of 24, she left her country to Paris and studied physics, chemistry and mathematics at the University of Paris with the support of her brother-in-law and sister. At the age of 27, she met Pierre Curie, a lecturer at the High School of Physics and Chemical Engineering in Paris, and the two fell in love.
Two years after their marriage, their first daughter Irena was born. In order to support his family, Mary began to serve on the sideline teaching position at the Paris Higher Normal School, while studying radioactive materials under difficult conditions. She doesn't have a professional laboratory, and a shed with poor ventilation and leaky water on the side of the campus is her workplace.
1898, Mary and her husband published a joint signed paper announcing the elements found after "polar" to commemorate the divided motherland Poland. On December 26, 1898, the Curie and his wife named the second element they found "radium", which means "ray". They also coined the word "radioactivity" during the research process.
1903, Mary received her Ph.D. from the University of Paris. In December of the same year, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences awarded Henry Berkerel, Pierre Curie and Marie Curie Nobel Prizes in Physics. Mary became the first woman ever to be awarded the Nobel Prize for .
However, the fact is: Marie Curie independently completed the purification of radium and the exploration and conclusion of radioactive materials. Pierre Curie is more of her partner and assistant. The concepts and theories about the existence of radioactive were first born in the mind of Marie Curie alone. Bekeral had no substantial guidance or help in this work at all. He just relied on his identity and status, as the introducer of the Curie couple, and brought them into the scientific community that was still controlled by the upper class. The name of Marie Curie, the real author, was signed at the last one.
1906, two years after their second daughter Erin was born, Piere crossed the street in pouring rain, but was hit by a carriage and crushed, causing a fracture of the skull. When Marie Curie was 39 years old, a sudden accident made her a widow. A month later, the Department of Physics at the University of Paris awarded Pierre's position to Mary, who became the first female professor at the University of Paris.
1910, Mary successfully isolated "radium" and named the radiation intensity unit after Curie.
But what she never expected was that a so-called scandal was coming to her. In 1911, it was revealed that Mary lived with Pierre's former student Paul Langzhiwan for a year in the past year. Langzhiwan was a student of Pierre, 5 years younger than Marie, and was separated from his wife at that time. Lang Zhiwan's marriage has great problems. He married the daughter of a ceramic worker, who was irritable, rude, barbaric, and despised his research work - because that would not bring cash. When she discovered Lang Zhiwan's frequent outings and uncertain whereabouts, she became suspicious and instructed her brother to sneak into Lang Zhiwan's laboratory, pry open the drawer, steal all the love letters from Madame Curie to Lang Zhiwan, and send them to major newspapers in Paris to announce.
In these private, lover letters, Marie Curie showed her strong sexual needs and wanted to satisfy them.
In a patriarchal society, women should not and are not allowed to have such needs. Even if there is one, they cannot be said, and they cannot eagerly hope to satisfy their desires through love. This was the rule of the world at that time. So she was nailed to the word: Polish slut. When the
scandal was exposed, Mary was attending an academic conference in Belgium .When she returned home, she found an angry crowd at her door, throwing stones at their home. She had to stay in a friend's house with her daughter.
Not only that, but even some French scientists who worked with him at that time wrote letters to ask her to leave France, including her most loyal partner Paul Epp.
Paul Eber's daughter, one of Marie Curie's most loyal students and supporters, had a huge conflict with her father. She stood in front of her father and said word by word: "If you dare to drive her away, I will never see you again, my father." She clearly said the following words left to her father are enough to leave for the future: "If Marie Curie is a man, nothing will happen."
is indeed the case. Another epoch-making great scientist, Einstein, , had children with her classmate Mileva Marich before marriage, and later moved to her cousin Elsa, during which time she had an ambiguous relationship with her cousin's daughter and his second niece. In the end, he chose his cousin and his niece became his secretary.
Not only did he divorce and remarry, he had a lot of lovers from various countries, but he also gave his illegitimate daughter directly, but the public didn't care about it.
Even if it was the other protagonist Lang Zhiwan, it was not affected by this. After his wife attacked Mary by inciting public opinion, she actually agreed to openly have a female secretary as her lover and save the marriage. Even years later, she agreed that her husband would get along with another young female student. As a man, what is so cheap is that in order to support this female student lover, Lang Zhiwan even asked Mary to arrange a position for the student at the institute.
After her husband's death, Mary, who had rejuvenated her second youth through her relationship with Lang Zhiwan, was almost destroyed by this public opinion storm. Isolated, infamous, and despised by everyone. For almost two or three years, her spirit was on the verge of collapse. She was defeated by the powerful, vicious, cruel pressure around her and had to stay in a hospital run by a nun for dual physical and psychological treatment.
If you are an ordinary woman, you may have to spend the rest of your life in a mental hospital. But Mary is different. She not only has a smart mind, but also has a strong will.
Finally, she was under pressure and hostility and started scientific research again. During World War I, she founded the first battle radiological centers, which is the origin of nuclear medicine. After quickly learning radiology, anatomy and automotive machinery, she purchased X-ray equipment, vehicles, and auxiliary generators and assembled a mobile X-ray machine . It is estimated that more than one million injured soldiers have been treated with Madame Curie's mobile X-ray machine. Because she was busy with this humanitarian work, she did almost no scientific research during World War I. Without her, there would be no current radiation therapy for cancer.
Simply put, it was she who enlightened humans about the exploration of atomic properties. Based on her journey to study radioactivity-atomic properties, other scientists finally discovered the internal structure of atoms. If humans had a division point in the atomic age, they should start with the discovery of radioactivity - that is, she, Marie Curie.
But her path to achievement is far more thorny than that of men:
18 when she was 18 years old, she was unable to be admitted to regular colleges and universities in Poland due to her gender.
26 when she returned to Poland and wanted to work in her motherland, but Clarkoff University turned her away due to gender reasons.
Mr. Pierre gave up her original crystal research under the influence of her work and joined her radioactive element research, but many scientists find it difficult to believe that a woman is capable of participating in this original research she has conducted.
37 When she received her PhD from the University of Paris, the Curie and his wife were invited to visit the Royal Society of London to give a report on radioactivity. But Mary was refused to report because she was a woman, and in the end she was only Pierre.
When the first Nobel Prize nomination was awarded, the committee initially only commended Pierre and Becquerel, but there was a committee member who advocated the rights of female scientists, Swedish mathematician Costa Mita-Levle informed Pierre and complained upwards, and Mary was nominated. Becquerel also said in her speech: "Madame Curie's contribution is to act as a good assistant to Mr. Pierre Curie. This makes us believe that God created women and is the best assistant to cooperate with men."
Her scientific talent and achievements have long surpassed her husband, but her well-known name is always Madame Curie, not Marie Curie.
Even though she suffered so much discrimination, she did not slide to the other end. She threw her Nobel Medal to her daughter as a toy; she gave most of the first Nobel Prize to friends, family, students and scientific research assistants; she unexpectedly did not apply for patents for the radium separation method, and did not set up obstacles to scientific research; she insisted on donating all kinds of bonuses to the scientific research institutions she belonged to, but she did not take any money. Einstein once commented: Madame Curie is probably the only person in the world who is not corrupted by fame and fortune.
In 1927, only 7 years left before her death, she attended the 5th Solvay Conference held in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, and took this photo. This photo is undoubtedly the one with the highest IQ in human history. They won a total of 12 Nobel Prizes in Physics and two Nobel Prizes in Chemistry. The front row of the
photos, the top scientific masters at that time were all sitting. The third old lady with white hair from left is Mary, who is the only woman in this photo and the only one who won the Nobel Prize in two different science categories (physics and chemistry).
The one sitting on her left and separated by two people was her former lover Lang Zhiwan. More than ten years have passed, how much of the relationship I have left? The people in the bureau have understood. Although they were unable to be together, Lang Zhiwan's grandson finally married Madame Curie's granddaughter, which was considered fulfilling the wishes of his elders.
Mary Curie was a strong and great feminist all her life. She calmly said to her daughter: "In a world where rules are made by men, they believe that women's function is sex and fertility."
Her daughter Erin later became the second woman in the world to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
In Mary's life, she was not only the most dazzling female scientist in history, but also a fighter who persistently appeals for women to fight for equality and fair rights.
Both aspects are the legacy she left to the world, and the second item may not be less precious than the first item.
