MARIE CURIE

From 1896 the Curies worked together on radioactivity, building on the results of German

physicist Wilhelm Roentgen, who had discovered X-rays, and French physicist Antoine Henri
Becquerel. Becquerel had discovered that uranium salts emit similar, unusual radiation, and
Marie Curie turned to investigating whether any other elements emitted these rays. She
discovered that the metallic element thorium also emits radiation and found that the mineral
pitchblende emitted much stronger radiation than its uranium and thorium content could account
for. She coined the term radioactive for the substances that gave off these rays.

The Curies then carried out an exhaustive search for the substance that could be producing the
radioactivity. They processed an enormous amount of pitchblende, and performed repeated
operations to separate it into its chemical components. Finally, they obtained a few hundredths of
a gram containing the source of the radiation. In July 1898 they announced the discovery of a
new chemical element, which they named polonium after Marie Curie’s homeland. The
discovery of the element radium followed in December 1898. They eventually prepared 1 g (0.04
oz) of pure radium chloride from 8 metric tons of waste pitchblende from Austria. They also
established that beta rays (now known to consist of electrons) are negatively charged particles.

In 1903 the Curies and Becquerel were awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for their fundamental
research on radioactivity. Marie Curie went on to study the chemistry and medical applications
of radium, and in 1911 she was awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry in recognition of her work
in discovering radium and polonium and in isolating radium.

In 1906 Marie took over Pierre Curie’s post at the Sorbonne after he was run over and killed by a
horse-drawn carriage. She became the first woman to teach there, and she concentrated all her
energies into research and caring for her daughters. The Curies’ older daughter, Irene, later
married Frédéric Joliot and became a famous scientist and Nobel laureate herself (see Irene
Joliot-Curie; Frédéric Joliot-Curie). In 1910 Marie worked with French chemist André Debierne
to isolate pure radium metal. In 1914 the University of Paris built the Institut du Radium (now
the Institut Curie) to provide laboratory space for research on radioactive materials.
Irène Joliot-Curie

Irène Joliot-Curie (1897-1956), French physicist and Nobel laureate. She and her husband
Frédéric Joliot-Curie shared the 1935 Nobel Prize for chemistry for their work in the synthesis of
radioactive substances.

Irène Curie was born in Paris, the daughter of the French physicists and Nobel Prize winners
Marie and Pierre Curie. She graduated from the College Sevigne in Gagny, France, in 1914 and
began her graduate education at the University of Paris (Sorbonne). Her graduate education was
interrupted by World War I (1914-1917). In 1918 she resumed her education at the University of
Paris, and received her Ph.D. degree in 1925 for her work on alpha particles (positively charged
nuclear particles consisting of two protons bound to two neutrinos). Also in 1918 she began
assisting her mother at the Radium Institute where she met Frédéric Joliot, whom she married in
1926. They subsequently worked together as a scientific team, and both assumed the name of
Joliot-Curie.

The Joliot-Curies specialized in the field of nuclear physics. In 1933, inspired by the research of
German physicist Walther Bothe, they made the important discovery that radioactive elements
can be artificially prepared from stable elements. In separate experiments they bombarded
aluminum foil and boron with alpha particles, temporarily changing the aluminum into
radioactive phosphorus and producing a radioactive form of nitrogen from the boron. This was
the first instance of creating artificial radioactivity.

In 1936 Joliot-Curie became a full professor at the University of Paris after lecturing there since
1932, and also served in the French cabinet as undersecretary of state for scientific research. She
was a member of the French Atomic Energy Commission from 1946 to 1951 and director of the
Institute of Radium after 1947. She became an officer of the Legion of Honor in 1939 and
received many other honors for her contributions to nuclear science. Her death, on March 17,
1956, was caused by leukemia, which she contracted in the course of her work.
Albert Einstein

In 1915 Einstein formulated a new theory of gravitation that reconciled the force of gravitation

with the requirements of his theory of special relativity. He proposed that gravitational effects
move at the speed of c. He called this theory general relativity to distinguish it from special
relativity, which only holds when there is no force of gravitation. General relativity produces
predictions very close to those of Newton's theory in most familiar situations, such as the moon
orbiting the earth. Einstein's theory differed from Newton's theory, however, in that it described
gravitation as a curvature of space and time.

In Einstein's general theory of relativity, he proposed that space and time may be united into a
single, four-dimensional geometry consisting of 3 space dimensions and 1 time dimension. In
this geometry, called spacetime, the motions of particles from point to point as time progresses
are represented by curves called world lines. If there is no gravity acting, the most natural lines
in this geometry are straight lines, and they represent particles that are moving always in the
same direction with the same speed—that is, particles that have no force acting on them. If a
particle is acted on by a force, then its world line will not be straight. Einstein also proposed that
the effect of gravitation should not be represented as the deviation of a world line from
straightness, as it would be for an electrical force. If gravitation is present, it should not be
considered a force. Rather, gravitation changes the most natural world lines and thereby curves
the geometry of spacetime. In a curved geometry, such as the two-dimensional surface of the
earth, there are no straight lines. Instead, there are special curves called geodesics, an example of
which are great circles around the earth. These special curves are at each point as straight as
possible, and they are the most natural lines in a curved geometry. The effect of gravitation
would be to influence the geodesics in spacetime. Near sources of gravitation the space is
strongly curved and the geodesics behave less and less like those in flat, uncurved spacetime. In
the solar system, for example, the effect of the sun and the earth is to cause the moon to move on
a geodesic that winds around the geodesic of the earth 12 times a year.

WHERE DID EINSTEIN GROW UP?

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany, on March 14, 1879. He grew up in Germany, Italy,

and Switzerland. Einstein taught himself geometry when he was 12 years old. School bored him
because it required endless memorizing and reciting. He often skipped classes to study on his
own or to play his violin. Yet he graduated from college in 1900 and earned a Ph.D. degree in
1905. From 1902 to 1907, Einstein worked as a clerk in the patent office in Zürich, Switzerland.
His job left him plenty of time to think.

WHAT DID EINSTEIN THINK ABOUT

Dents in space, light in bundles, and matter that turns into energy sound like science-fiction
fantasies. However, Albert Einstein said they were real. Other scientists proved through
observations that Einstein’s theories were right. Einstein revolutionized the science of physics
and helped bring in the atomic age.
WHERE DID EINSTEIN GROW UP?

Albert Einstein was born in Ulm, Germany, on March 14, 1879. He grew up in Germany, Italy,

and Switzerland. Einstein taught himself geometry when he was 12 years old. School bored him
because it required endless memorizing and reciting. He often skipped classes to study on his
own or to play his violin. Yet he graduated from college in 1900 and earned a Ph.D. degree in
1905. From 1902 to 1907, Einstein worked as a clerk in the patent office in Zürich, Switzerland.
His job left him plenty of time to think.

WHAT DID EINSTEIN THINK ABOUT?

Einstein thought about the rules that govern the way the world works. For example, he explained
why small particles in liquids wiggle around, a movement called Brownian motion. He said that
the particles were being bumped into by tiny bits of matter called atoms that are too small to see.

He also thought about light and electricity. Einstein knew that light shining on metal sometimes
causes electricity to flow. He explained this result, called the photoelectric effect, by saying that
light is made of tiny bundles of energy called photons. Photons hitting the metal knock particles
called electrons away. Since electricity is simply moving electrons, he had solved the mystery of
the photoelectric effect. In 1921, Einstein won the most famous prize in science, the Nobel Prize,
for this work.

Another thing Einstein thought about was time. He said that time does not always flow at the
same rate. He proposed that motion affects time. He called this idea the special theory of
relativity.

Einstein then came up with his general theory of relativity. This theory has a new explanation for
gravity. Einstein said that gravity comes from curves or dents in the fabric of space. Objects
make dents in space the way a bowling ball makes a dent in a mattress. The Moon falls into the
dent made by Earth and rolls around the Earth. Scientists later proved that the dent a star makes
in space-time bends light as the light passes by.

Einstein changed physics by showing that new ideas could come just from thinking. Before
Einstein, most new ideas in physics had come from experiments in the laboratory.

EINSTEIN AND ATOMIC ENERGY

Einstein also said that matter and energy are the same thing. He expressed this relation in a
famous equation: E=mc2. This equation says that energy (E) equals mass (m) times the speed of
light squared (c2). Energy can therefore be changed into matter, and matter into energy. The
ability to turn matter into energy led to the development of the atomic bomb and nuclear power.