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Marie Curie H A L F - L I F E OF A L E G E N D
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nce prominent scientists be come part of the "lore" of a field, t h e i r r e p u t a t i o n s sometimes undergo a strange transformation. Albert Einstein's equation, Ε = mc2, a p p e a r s on T - s h i r t s , a n d Steven Hawking's book on cosmic theory, A Brief History of Time, has become a popular coffee table book. T-shirt slogans and glossy book covers cele brate the scientists as heroes but do not really make them or their work more accessible to the general public. When the hero is Marie Curie, the task of presenting her work and her contributions to physics and chemis try is clouded further by the details of Curie's life, which are remarkable enough to steal the reader's attention from the details of her experimental m e t h o d s a n d c o n c l u s i o n s . Nobel prize winner, discoverer of new ele m e n t s , h i s t o r i c a l f i g u r e — a n d of course, woman scientist—these leg end-making phrases distance even a professional readership from any re alistic picture of Curie as a working chemist. Her efforts to elucidate the nature of radioactivity are usually summa rized, even in college chemistry texts, with a phrase reserved for feats that are great but generally incomprehen sible: "She won the Nobel prize for her discovery of radium and poloni um." Her experimental methods and conclusions are almost always left out, as though discovery of an ele ment were either self-explanatory or obscure. However, her doctoral the sis, entitled Radioactive Substances, which is only about 100 pages long in paperback, makes interesting read ing today, particularly when com pared with current knowledge about radioactivity (1). Written in a more personal style than is usual in today's research paANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY, VOL. 65, NO. 4, FEBRUARY 15, 1993 · 215 A
Focus pers and review articles, her thesis demystifies her discoveries by giving modern readers a feel for the day-to day process of investigation and co operation among peers in the fledg ling field of radioactivity studies. The thesis Curie presented to the Faculty of Sciences at the University of Paris not only reveals the straight forward nature of her experiments and the equipment she and her hus band designed for them, but also re flects the level of chemical knowledge among their peers and the conditions of laboratory research at that time. Originally published in Chemical News, London, in 1903, the English translation was republished in pa perback in 1961, 1967, and 1971 in the United States. P a r t of Curie's re search is sketched out in the 1937 bi ography w r i t t e n by h e r y o u n g e r daughter Eve (2), as well as in more recent, less r o m a n t i c i z e d profes sional biographies by authors such as Rosalynd Pflaum (3). Ninety years after the publication of this thesis, Curie's career remains as much a curiosity of science lore as it was when she was alive. The first female recipient of the Nobel Prize, Curie was also the first woman in Europe to gain a full science profes sorship at a university, and the first to acquire and direct a large labora tory. She worked with her husband, Pierre, until his death in 1906, and a l t h o u g h she was frequently a s sumed to be a mere rider on her hus band's coattails r a t h e r t h a n a r e searcher of merit herself, not only
Ground
Figure 1. Curie's piezoelectrometer. Radioactive substances were powdered and placed on plate Β of a condenser, generating electricity that was measured by electrometer E. A quartz electric balance Q was attached at Ε with tension added at Η to compensate the charge on plate A. This measured the current intensity in absolute units. (Adapted from Reference 1.)
did he give her full credit for her work and her reasoning, but so did most of their small circle of peers in radioactive studies: Rutherford, Bec querel, Perrin, Langevin, Meyer, and Giesel. The Nobel c o m m i t t e e a w a r d e d both Curies, along with Becquerel, t h e 1903 p r i z e i n p h y s i c s a n d awarded Marie alone the chemistry prize in 1911. T h a t second prize came five y e a r s after P i e r r e was killed by a wagon while crossing the street and after she had assumed his post as an assistant professor at the Faculty of Sciences of the University
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