Marie And Pierre Nobel Prize Essay - 921 words

Marie Curie Marie Curie was born in Warsaw on November 7, 1867. She was actually born to the name Marja Sklodowska. When she was 24, she went to Paris where she changed her name to Marie and started school in Sorbonne. In 1893, she received her degree in physics.


When she needed a lab to experiment in, a Professor Kovalski said that there might be space in the School of Physics and Chemistry. He also said that Pierre Curie, a scientist there might be able to help her. She had heard of Pierre and thought he was a genius. When she met him, they worked together for awhile and he fell in love with her. When she had to leave to go to Warsaw he begged her to come back and she did. They married the year after they met on July 26.


After they married, Marie became weak and always tired. He thought she was ailing tuberculoses, which her mother died from, but she refused to go into a hospital. It came time for Marie to begin thinking of her thesis subject. She decided to base it on the nature of radiation. She received a little glassed in studio in the School of Physics to experiment in.


She wondered if any other elements besides uranium or thorium emitted rays. She then discovered an element that had more radioactivity than any other element. When Pierre heard this, he decided to stop his work on magnetism to help his wife. For four years Marie and Pierre concentrated on extracting the pitchblende from uranium that had more radioactivity than uranium itself. They then knew that the radioactive element which was more intense than uranium had to be in this pitchblende. After long research they discovered that two fractions of the ore were especially radioactive which meant there were two new elements.


She named them radium and polonium. Polonium was named after Poland. They kept trying to isolate the elements but the pitchblende cost more money then they could afford. Marie wrote a letter to a mine in Bohemia where uranium was extracted from pitchblende, in which she offered a moderate price for the pitchblende. After they got the pitchblende they started working in a little shed.


For a few years they extracted the radium and polonium from the pitchblende. It was discovered that radium was stronger than the other element polonium. Finally, they purified 1 gram of radium. One night, Marie and Pierre walked into the shed when it was very dark. They saw the radium salts glowing in the dark.


Working with the radium proved to be dangerous to Marie. Due to the overexposure to radioactivit ...................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

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Essay Tags: marie curie, marie and pierre, marie, four years, nobel prize

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