physics professor at the Sorbonne who verified Einstein’s explanation of Brownian motion, correctly estimated the size of water molecules and atoms, and established cathode rays as negatively charged particles—electrons.
Pierre presented his and Marie’s scientific findings to France’s Academy of Sciences on March 16, 1903, and the Swedish Academy of Sciences then awarded them and Becquerel the Nobel Prize. Behind the scenes, four members of the French Académie had recommended that Becquerel and Pierre alone share the Nobel, leaving out Marie’s work entirely. But one of her champions was a Danish mathematician who had great influence with the Swedish academy, and his strenuous efforts repelled that slight.
The Nobel, which had only begun two years before, did not have the global prestige then that it has now, but awarding it to an obscure husband-and-wife team in that tabloid and suffragette era would change that dramatically. The Nobel made the Curies famous, and the Curies, in turn, made the Nobel significant.
In Pierre and Marie’s miracle year of 1903, few foretold what was to come. One who did was English chemist Frederick Soddy, announcing that matter must now be thought of“not only as mass, but also as a store of energy . . . [and] the planet on which we live rather as a storehouse stuffed with explosives, inconceivably more powerful than any we know of, and possibly only awaiting a suitable detonator to cause the earth to revert to chaos.” In 1904, Soddy told Canada’s military leaders that whoever unlocked the power within the atom“would possess a weapon by which he could destroy the earth if he chose.”
In the wake of the Nobel, the worldwide press created story after story about this unknown pair, their exciting discovery, their tremendous love for each other and for their work together, and whether Marie was equal, superior, or inferior to Pierre in scientific acumen and achievement. Only Röntgen could appreciate this kind of global attention, as the public enthusiasm for radium would now wholly eclipse that for X-rays. Cosmopolitan magazine called the metal “life, energy, immortal warmth . . . dust from the master’s workshop,” and the cover of the Chicago Daily Tribune of June 21, 1903, summed up the moment:
Radium Greatest Find of History
May Upset Vibratory Theory of Light and Questions Conservation of Energy.
New York Engineer First to Make Photographs by Rays from New Substance.
Discovery of Stupendous Import.
Radium, $2,721,555 a Pound.
Blessing, with menace. German chemist Friedrich Giesel, working with a dentist, first reported on radioactivity’s biological effects in 1900, and Pierre, following up, was thrilled to find radium could enflame his skin “with a lesion resembling a burn that developed progressively and required several months to heal,” as Marie reported. “Henri Becquerel had by accident a similar burn as a result of carrying in his vest pocket a glass tube containing radium salt. He came to tell us of this evil effect of radium, exclaiming in a manner at once delighted and annoyed: ‘I love it, but I owe it a grudge.’ ” Pierre: “The inflammation of the extremities of the fingers lasted about 15 days and finished when the skin dropped off, but the painful sensation did not disappear for two months.” An American journalist reported, “Pierre Curie pulled up his sleeve and showed me a forearm scarred and reddened from fresh healed sores.” Then it occurred to Pierre that radium’s emanations could kill malignant tumors, and a new medical specialty was born: curietherapy.
Just as Röntgen rays had been used against diphtheria, tuberculosis, and other germs, as well as certain cancers, the Curies’ radium, when administered with care, could kill tumor cells without killing healthy tissue. When X-rays were used for treatment, radiologists adjusted the settings by putting their arm in the path of the rays; if they got a small sunburn,
Pierre presented his and Marie’s scientific findings to France’s Academy of Sciences on March 16, 1903, and the Swedish Academy of Sciences then awarded them and Becquerel the Nobel Prize. Behind the scenes, four members of the French Académie had recommended that Becquerel and Pierre alone share the Nobel, leaving out Marie’s work entirely. But one of her champions was a Danish mathematician who had great influence with the Swedish academy, and his strenuous efforts repelled that slight.
The Nobel, which had only begun two years before, did not have the global prestige then that it has now, but awarding it to an obscure husband-and-wife team in that tabloid and suffragette era would change that dramatically. The Nobel made the Curies famous, and the Curies, in turn, made the Nobel significant.
In Pierre and Marie’s miracle year of 1903, few foretold what was to come. One who did was English chemist Frederick Soddy, announcing that matter must now be thought of“not only as mass, but also as a store of energy . . . [and] the planet on which we live rather as a storehouse stuffed with explosives, inconceivably more powerful than any we know of, and possibly only awaiting a suitable detonator to cause the earth to revert to chaos.” In 1904, Soddy told Canada’s military leaders that whoever unlocked the power within the atom“would possess a weapon by which he could destroy the earth if he chose.”
In the wake of the Nobel, the worldwide press created story after story about this unknown pair, their exciting discovery, their tremendous love for each other and for their work together, and whether Marie was equal, superior, or inferior to Pierre in scientific acumen and achievement. Only Röntgen could appreciate this kind of global attention, as the public enthusiasm for radium would now wholly eclipse that for X-rays. Cosmopolitan magazine called the metal “life, energy, immortal warmth . . . dust from the master’s workshop,” and the cover of the Chicago Daily Tribune of June 21, 1903, summed up the moment:
Radium Greatest Find of History
May Upset Vibratory Theory of Light and Questions Conservation of Energy.
New York Engineer First to Make Photographs by Rays from New Substance.
Discovery of Stupendous Import.
Radium, $2,721,555 a Pound.
Blessing, with menace. German chemist Friedrich Giesel, working with a dentist, first reported on radioactivity’s biological effects in 1900, and Pierre, following up, was thrilled to find radium could enflame his skin “with a lesion resembling a burn that developed progressively and required several months to heal,” as Marie reported. “Henri Becquerel had by accident a similar burn as a result of carrying in his vest pocket a glass tube containing radium salt. He came to tell us of this evil effect of radium, exclaiming in a manner at once delighted and annoyed: ‘I love it, but I owe it a grudge.’ ” Pierre: “The inflammation of the extremities of the fingers lasted about 15 days and finished when the skin dropped off, but the painful sensation did not disappear for two months.” An American journalist reported, “Pierre Curie pulled up his sleeve and showed me a forearm scarred and reddened from fresh healed sores.” Then it occurred to Pierre that radium’s emanations could kill malignant tumors, and a new medical specialty was born: curietherapy.
Just as Röntgen rays had been used against diphtheria, tuberculosis, and other germs, as well as certain cancers, the Curies’ radium, when administered with care, could kill tumor cells without killing healthy tissue. When X-rays were used for treatment, radiologists adjusted the settings by putting their arm in the path of the rays; if they got a small sunburn,
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