Science and technology are fields that have historically been dominated by men, from the likes of Isaac Newton, Faraday, Planck, Einstein, Hawking among others. Women have however also been a part of this field, such as Ada Lovelace (basically the world’s first computer programmer), Lise Meitner (worked on nuclear fission, process of making nuclear bombs and reactors) , Rosalind franklin (chemist who worked on figuring out the structure of DNA, the basic building block of life) among others have shown and continue to show enough mettle to wade through the deep waters of knowledge. Perhaps the most famous woman in the field of science, and a giant compared even to her male contemporaries is Marie Skłodowska Curie. At a time women were at the margins of science, Marie’s will proved to be too strong for the establishment that was designed to hold her back.
The Necessary history
She was Born in 1867, Russian controlled Warsaw, now Poland, to Physics Professor and High school principal. Marie was captivated by the sciences, and strived to be a scientist. Challenges however arose once she was done with High school but could not be accepted into university due to the fact that she was a woman, and hence had to move to France for the opportunity. While there, she made a pact with her sister, that Marie would work while her sister studied, and once she was done, Marie would join school. For four years, Marie worked as a governess (babysitter) while educating her sister who was studying medicine. Once her sister was done, Marie joined Sorbonne, where she met her future Husband Pierre Curie.
The Marie-Pierre partnership...
Pierre was already a physicist when she met Marie, having worked in magnetism. He and his brother Jacque worked on the piezoelectric effect, where a voltage is generated by applying force across certain crystals or force generated when a voltage is applied across a crystal (they are nowadays used as those annoying speakers in success cards, the metal plate with the yellow stuff on it). He was also excellent at making delicate electrical equipment, which would prove useful in their work with Marie in radioactivity.
So, what is radioactivity?
This is a phenomenon where certain materials emit radiation without input in energy. It was discovered by Henri Becquerel, who was working trying to replicate the work done on x- rays. He noticed that some uranium salts were able to produced highly penetrating radiation without energy from the sun as an input. This was a conundrum as it violated the first law of thermodynamics. It turns out, atomic nuclei release radiation and particles and energy in order to stabilize themselves (Kind of like how you try to lose weight when you notice your tummy is getting bigger). Atomic Nuclei break down since the strong force that holds the nucleus together (the strongest force in the universe, and almost as strong as Chuck Norris) has a very small range, and once the nucleus gets bigger as the number of protons and neutrons increase, it gets unstable (that is why we don’t have elements with 1000 protons and 1000 electrons). The radiation is released in the following forms
1. Alpha radiation: occurs when heavy elements break down to lighter elements. Is caused when
the electrostatic force overcomes the nuclear strong force and hence the alpha particle is
emitted. According to classical physics, the alpha particles do not have enough energy to break
away. They do so due to a quantum mechanics effect known as Quantum tunneling.
2. Beta – radiation: occurs when a neutron is converted into a proton through weak force
interaction (notice the difference in forces involved). This results in release of an electron and an
antineutrino (say this in a social setting to sound smart. They might also let you be eccentric)
3. Beta + radiation: this occurs when a proton turns into a neutron through weak force interaction.
Here, a proton is converted into a neutron, releasing a positron (electron with positive charge)
and a neutrino (totally different thing from Neutron). (Use this statement for bonus smart points
for knowing what a positron is. Watch the amazement in your friends face as they learn about
positrons, then for good measure, throw in the bit on neutrinos)
4. Gamma radiation: unlike the above emissions, gamma radiation is pure energy. Famously known
for turning scientists into raging green monsters who cannot form grammatically correct
sentences despite having four PhDs (just kidding, Gamma radiation will kill you). Gamma energy
can be released by all the above radiations if they are emitted in excited state.
Radium, Polonium, and Nobel Prizes
For her doctoral thesis, Marie studied radioactive salts, such as pitchblende. She placed the salt samples in between plates and noticed how they discharged the electrically charged plates (aah, the good old times of guessing about the gold leaf electroscope). She noticed that some samples discharged the electric plates faster than uranium, hence, there had to be another element. This led to discovery of Radium and Polonium (named after her native country, Poland). For their work in radioactivity, Marie and Pierre Curie shared the Nobel prize in physics with Henri Becquerel for their work on radioactivity.
All this time working with radioactive material severely affected the health of these two scientists, since radiation is dangerous (nuclear radiation has ionizing effects and burning effects. Please do not enter nuclear reactors trying to become a superhero, or get bitten by a radioactive spider).
Things got worse in1906 when Pierre was knocked over and crushed to death by a horse cart. Marie took up his position in Sorbonne and helped establish the radium institute dedicated to studying radioactivity. In 1911, Marie Curie was awarded her second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry, for the discovery of Radium and Polonium. She remains up to date the only woman to have two Nobel prizes, the first person to receive two Nobel prizes, and the only person to receive two Nobel prizes in two different fields of science.
When world war one broke out, she helped set up the mobile x-ray units used in the front lines during war. She also helped a lot of women in science, by hiring a lot of them as researchers at the radium institute. Perhaps prolific is that she was the only woman attendee at the Solvay conference of 1927. Among her successors in the field was her daughter, Irene Joliot Curie, who would later win the Nobel prize in chemistry for her work with artificial radioactivity.
Marie Curie died in 1934 due to pernicious anemia, caused due to her constant exposure to radiation. Marie’s work on radioactivity helped us her the world into the quantum age, and provided a basis for the works of great atomic and nuclear physicists such as Rutherford and Bohr. Her work on Radiation also helped in providing a method through which cancer can be treated, which is something by its own right.
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