Marie Curie

Marie Curie was three things: a scientist, a physicist and a woman. Yes, a mother, daughter and wife as well; but notably, one the most important figures in science. The first woman to win a Nobel Prize was Marie Curie. The only person to win two Nobel Prizes in separate fields was Marie Curie. My hero is Marie Curie.

Marie Curie started off her life on the 7th of November, 1867 in Warsaw, Poland. At this stage she was Maria Salomea Sklodowska. The area of Poland she was born into was controlled by the czar, who hoped to abolish Polish nationalism by keeping future generations ignorant of their own history; but even the mighty czar couldn't stop Polish patriots from teaching their children about the culture of Poland, like Maria was taught.

She grew up with her brother and three sisters; on top of that she was the youngest of the five children. Her family was poor already, and the little money they had was soon to disappear. On both her mothers and fathers side her grandparents lost money and land, her father was fired from his job when he taught his daughters to use lab equipment (it was illegal in schools in Poland at the time) and was forced to have lower pay position. Her mother resigned from her post at a large school when Maria was born. Then when Maria was eight she lost her sister to typhus, then at ten she lost her mother to tuberculosis. Yes, for Maria life was difficult. She attended two schools, a boarding school and then a gymnasium, which she graduated from in 1883 when she was 15. After graduation Maria suffered from a collapse caused by depression, following that she stayed a carefree year with her cousins in the country. That would be the only carefree year of her life.

From then on, Maria carried on her almost normal life from there. She enrolled in an illegal floating university, attending night classes and often taking them; as the only university she could go to didn't except women. When she had finished there, still not 17, she went to become a governess; she taught the children of an agriculturalist who ran a beet-sugar factory. In her spare time she taught the children of the people working at the factory, a deed heroic in its self. While working as a governess she fell in love with the eldest son of her employer, and she became his fiancee; her employers weren't too pleased. Respecting his parents' wishes, he broke off the engagement, even though the two were romantically involved for several years after.

Maria became Marie when she finally enrolled in the Sorbonne. She lived with her sister for a while, but moved into the Latin Quarter after a few months. It was ridiculously cold where she reportedly wore every item of clothing she had to keep warm in the winter and fainted from hunger as she was too focused on her study leaving her no time for eating.

When Marie went in search of lab space she met a man who would change her life, then the world. She was talking to a colleague when her desire for lab space came up in conversation; her colleague recommended that he should see his friend Pierre Curie. Pierre's lab was actually extremely inadequate but he found room for Marie to work. With their common interests being science and physics, each being totally devoted to their work and having no significant other, it didn't take long for their feelings for each-other to grow from respect to love. In 1985 the two were joined in a civil ceremony, as neither was religious. Two years later their first child, Irene, was born; their second, Eve, seven years later. Dr Curie, Pierre's father, played an important role in the children's lives. A few weeks after Irene's birth, the wife of Dr Curie died, so he moved in with his son, daughter-in-law and granddaughter. Dr Curie was the perfect babysitter and developed a close relationship with his son's family.

Once moved into her laboratory, Marie worked day and night. She was hell bent on trying to prove radioactive energy did not come from the atom itself, but that the world was full of radioactive waves of energy and the atom was somehow infected by the waves. Many people doubted her, but there was one thing that they couldn't deny; her theory was logically possible. In her lab, Marie examined every known element to see if any would air conduct electricity better. Eventually she came to the conclusion that thorium compounds emit uranium rays - or Becquerel rays as they're more commonly called. The behaviour of these compounds was odd, so that behaviour was given a name: radioactivity.

After the discovery or radioactivity Marie carried on with research. She found that two mineral compounds - pitchblende and chalcocite - were more radioactive than uranium on its own; so some other element must be more radioactive than uranium, but there was no element more radioactive than uranium, until Marie discovered polonium and radium. It was no easy task discovering these, rigorous testing was required to isolate the elements; it was time consuming and difficult, but finally all that was left were two tiny fractions which were highly radioactive; Marie and Pierre - who was working with her - were on to something. That was, in short, how the pair put two elements on the periodic table. That was impressive by any standards.

Marie's public life was blooming, while her private life collapsed. In June of 1903 Pierre and Marie were invited to The Royal Institution of London. That same year she experienced a miscarriage, along with Pierre's deteriorating health; at the conference in London Pierre was barely able to dress himself before his lecture. 1903 was also the year Pierre was nominated for a Nobel Prize for physics. A colleague from the nominating committee wrote to Pierre, saying it would be a crime to not have Marie recognized for her work; Pierre replied saying that it would be a crime if Marie's pivotal role in the research went without credit. Shortly, the Pierre's nomination was Pierre and Marie Curie's. They won the prize.

Everything was improving for Marie. She had moved on from her miscarriage and gradually Pierre got better; he even returned to work. She had had another child, Eve; Pierre became a professor and that gave them a lab, plus with prize money they hired a lab assistant; life was good. But just as life was getting better disaster struck: in the spring of 1906 Pierre Curie was in front of a six ton horse-drawn wagon that wouldn't stop; he died instantly. Marie was shattered; she went about the legal work without even accepting Pierre was gone. It dawned later that he wasn't coming back; that was a blow that could've blown her completely off course. But she knew that Pierre would've wanted her to carry on; for herself and for science. So she did.

To the press, scandal is oxygen to their fire; especially when two physicists are having an affair. Late 1911 after a fair amount of tittle-tattle from the press, Marie was viciously attacked by newspapers and magazines alike. The issue of concern was based around Marie and another man: Paul Langevin, who was also a physicist - a married physicist - working with the 38 year and widowed Marie Curie; history repeated itself when the feelings between the two grew from respect, even friendship, to mutual love. Yes, it was adultery, but Langevin was unhappily married and husband and wife weren't even living together. The press lapped it up. It was the scandal of the day. The press dubbed it 'The Langevin Affair'. The press resurrected old lies, and made up new ones; one of them being that Paul Langevin was involved with Marie before Pierre's death, and that it drove him to commit suicide. The press fabricated some ridiculous lies, and turned the public against Marie. She was in Belgium when these falsehoods were splattered throughout newspapers; and when she came home she was horrified by the mob outside her house, terrorizing her 7 and 14 year old daughters. Luckily a friend of Marie took her and her children in: Emile Borel gave refuge to the Curies even when the Minister of Public Affairs threatened to leave Borel without a job.

In the December of 1911, Marie was given her second Nobel Prize; this time in chemistry. That made her the only person ever to get a Nobel Prize in two different fields; and at the time she was the only woman to receive one. She was grateful and obviously delighted she'd won the award, but the stress around her was too much for Marie. She suffered from depression, as she had done many times before; alongside her mental problems she also had kidney disease. She underwent kidney surgery using her maiden name- Sklodowska - as she felt she didn't deserve to use the name of her deceased husband. She spent the January of 1912 recovering.

The war was over, life went on. By late 1919 Marie's Radium Institute was finally finished, after almost a decade. Marie was devoted to the Institute, and rarely left it behind; she did just that when she went to America with her two daughters in 1920. That is where the 'Marie Curie Radium Campaign' began. America was shocked when they learnt they had about fifty times more radium than the woman who discovered the element in the first place; and that Marie's dearest wish was to have a second gram of radium for research. Marie was to write an autobiography to help with the campaign; on one condition: Paul Langevin was never to be mentioned in print, and in return Marie went over to America again to gain support for her campaign. Magazines and newspapers had to agree not to print a single word relating Paul Langevin to Marie Curie during Marie's tour either. France, hoping to make up for past oversights, awarded Marie the Legion of Honour; she refused it, just as her husband had done nearly two decades ago. She met with the President of the United States on the several tours she went on to try and gain funds. She toured many countries, including France, but finished her tours in 1930.

Marie last years were spent devoted to the Radium Institute. The whole lab was split into little teams, answering questions and striving towards one goal: to find out exactly what radium is. Marie set her whole lab to work, and they were progressing; but Marie was physically declining. Marie was dying. All the years spent in the lab with inadequate protection from the radioactive materials, working with X-rays on a daily basis, they had taken their toll. The workers in the lab knew the risk of working with the radium, and Marie told them to get fresh air, exercise, be healthy; so they wouldn't suffer like her. She tried desperately to stay in the lab, and was there the day she died. On July 4th, 1934 Marie was in the lab, but had to leave because of her illness. She never returned to the lab.

Marie Curie is a figure of strength and determination; not for science, nor for women, but the human race. Even on her dying day she was still devoted to the one thing she had clung onto for most of her life. Death and scandal always lay around the corner for Marie, but her resilience conquered all. Despite every set-back she faced, physical or emotional, she came through and went on with work. Marie saved lives, and not just by accident. No, Marie didn't become wonder-woman and use super strength to save a city; she was a scientist. Marie is my hero. Everything she did was for the good of the world, or her country. That is why she's my hero.