A Tragic Folktale

Marie. Marie Curie was the first woman scientist to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Science, and the first to win it twice. Since the discovery of the radioactive element radium by Mr. and Mrs. Curie in 1897, over the past 80 years, articles and books praising them have never ceased to be published, so it can be seen that the achievements she established and the qualities she possessed have remained y in the minds of future generations, and have become a model for scientists and young people to learn from.

Poor and Striving Student

Mary Sklodowska was born in 1867 in Warsaw, Poland, in a family of upright and patriotic teachers. She was a diligent student from an early age and graduated from high school with a gold medal at the age of 16. Because women were not allowed to enroll in universities in Warsaw under the Russian czar at that time, and because of her family's financial difficulties, Mary had to come to the countryside northwest of Warsaw to work as a governess.

During her three years as a governess, in addition to educating her master's children, she also found time to teach the children of local peasants how to read, and insisted on self-education. She helped her sister to go to Paris to study with the ding money she saved from her frugal life.

In 1891, with the help of her father and sister, her desire to study in Paris was realized. When she arrived at the Faculty of Science of the University of Paris, she was determined to learn the real skills, so she studied very hard. Every day she took a one-hour carriage ride to the classroom early, chose a seat closest to the lectern, and heard clearly all the knowledge taught by the professor. In order to save time and concentration, as well as the cost of the carriage ride, four months after enrolling in school she moved out of her sister's house and into the attic of a house near the school. In this attic there was no fire, no light, no water, but only a small skylight in the roof, on which there was a little light in the house. With only 40 rubles a month, she was satisfied with these living conditions. She devoted herself to her studies, and although the poverty and hardship of her life weakened her physique, the wealth of knowledge enriched her mind, and in 1893 she finally graduated from the Physics Faculty in first place, and the following year in second place. The following year, she graduated second in the school's math department.

Mary's diligence, learning, and intelligence won her the esteem of Professor Lippmann. After receiving her master's degree in physics, she moved to Prof. Lippmann's laboratory and began her research activities. It was here that she met the young physicist Pierre Curie (also known as Pierre Curie and Pierre Curie).

In 1896, the French physicist Becquerel discovered that a type of uranium salt could automatically emit rays of an unknown nature. This discovery aroused great interest in the Curies, an excellent field of study. In a closed and damp house formerly used as a storeroom, Marie began to make inroads into this new field with a very simple device. In just a few weeks, she achieved promising results. She proved that the astonishing intensity of the radiation from uranium salts was proportional to the amount of uranium contained in the compound, and was not affected by the condition of the compound or by the external environment (light, temperature). She also concluded that this agnostic radioactivity is characteristic of an element. Could it be that only the element uranium has this characteristic? Following this line of thought, she decided to examine all known chemical substances. Through a laborious and difficult census, she discovered that compounds of another element, thorium, also automatically emit rays similar to those of uranium, and she became convinced that the phenomenon of radioactivity was by no means a characteristic of uranium alone, but a natural phenomenon. She proposed to call this phenomenon radioactivity, and to call uranium, thorium, and other substances with this property radioactive.

Her investigations soon extended from salts and oxides to all minerals. She did not tire of using the same method to study a large amount of material, and at last made the discovery that some minerals were much more intensely radioactive than they would have been if they had been produced solely by the uranium or thorium they contained. At first she was not sure of this determination, but after one or two dozen repeated measurements, she was forced to recognize it as a fact. This fact indicated that these minerals contained some unknown element that was much more radioactive than uranium or thorium. This was a very important and fascinating deduction. Although some of her colleagues advised her to be more cautious, she was convinced that her tests were not wrong and was determined to find this new element.

Marie's work was so important that Pierre, who was not only a husband but also a comrade-in-arms, decided to suspend his work on crystals to assist his wife*** in the search for this unknown element. Pierre's participation was undoubtedly a great encouragement and support for Marie. From then on, in that humid laboratory, there are two minds and four hands are busy. This collaboration lasted for eight years, until an accident took Pierre's life.

The unknown element existed in uranium asphalt, but they had no idea that the new element was only one part in a million in the ore. They were sleepless and sleepless, night and day, followed the procedure of chemical analysis, analyzing the various elements contained in the ore and its radioactivity, several elimination, and gradually learned that the unknown element that creates anomalous radioactivity is hidden in the two chemical parts of the ore. After tireless efforts, in July 1898, they searched for a new element from one of these parts, chemically similar to lead and 400 times more radioactive than uranium. Pierre asked Marie to name this new element, and after a moment of quiet reflection, she replied, "Could we call it polonium?". In this way, Marie honored her unforgettable motherland, the country that had already been partitioned by Russia, Germany and Austria on the world map at that time, Poland. To show her love for her motherland, Marie sent the original manuscript of her dissertation back to her motherland while submitting it to the Faculty of Doctorate of Science, so that her dissertation was published in Paris and Warsaw at almost the same time. Her achievement earned pride and honor for the people of her homeland.

After the discovery of polonium, Mr. and Mrs. Curie continued to analyze the barium-containing part, which is 900 times more radioactive than pure uranium, with tireless spirit. After concentration and crystallization of the part, they finally obtained a small amount of not very pure white powder in December of the same year. This white powder flashed white light in the dark, according to which Mr. and Mrs. Curie named it radium, which means "radiation" in Latin. The discovery of polonium and radium caused great consternation in the scientific community. Some physicists kept a cautious attitude and waited for further results of the research before they were willing to express their opinions. Some chemists made it clear that the existence of radium could not be indicated without measuring its atomic weight. Show us radium and we will believe it exists. To extract pure radium or polonium from uranium ore, and to measure their atomic weights, it was obviously much more difficult for the Curies, who at that time had neither complete and sufficient experimental equipment, nor funds to buy ore and sufficient experimental expenses, than to discover polonium and radium from uranium ore. In order to overcome this difficulty, they ran around to seek help and support from the relevant departments. In their efforts, Austria benefited 1 ton of uranium ore residue. They also borrowed a broken and leaky hut at the Physics and Chemistry School, which was not even suitable for storing dead bodies, and started the more difficult work. The shack, hot as an oven in summer and freezing in winter, was unventilated and forced them to put many of their refining operations in the yard under the open sky. No worker wanted to work in these conditions, but the Curies struggled for four years.

During the four years, they never complained of suffering, no matter whether it was cold winter or hot summer, heavy labor, and the smoke of poisonous fumes. The persistent pursuit of the scientific cause of hard work into the real joy of life, indomitable perseverance so that they finally in 1902, that is, after the discovery of radium in the 45th month, from the tons of asphalt uranium ore in the refining residue of 0.1 grams of pure radium chloride, and measured radium's atomic weight of 225. radium is the existence of the element, the skeptical scientists had to bow their heads in front of the facts. So a little bit of radium salt, this simple number, cohesion of the Curie couple how much hard work of the heart and soul! At night, when they came to the hut, without turning on the light and appreciated the flickering fluorescent radium chloride, they were completely intoxicated in the happy and magical phantasmagoria. Whenever Mrs. Curie recalled this period of her life, she thought it was "the most rewarding years of the couple's life".

In the face of money and honor

The Curies were a pair of great scientists who devoted themselves selflessly to the cause of science, but the French authorities treated their work unfairly and were slow to respond to their scientific achievements. The first to recognize the talents of Mr. and Mrs. Curie and proposed to arrange a corresponding position for them was the Swiss government. In 1900, when Curie could only work in the Curie's ill-equipped laboratory for 500 francs a month, the University of Geneva in Switzerland was willing to hire him to open a chair of physics at a salary of 10,000 francs a year and a professor's salary. But Mr. and Mrs. Curie, who never thought about money or benefits in order to refine pure radium, declined. Their first medal was given by England. Because they discovered the new radioactive elements polonium and radium, which opened up a new field of radiochemistry, the Royal Society invited the couple to lecture in London in 1903 and awarded them the David Medal, the highest honor of the Royal Society. awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics.

In the appointment, honor after honor, the University of Paris, France, only in 1903 awarded Madame Curie with a doctorate in physics. 1904 University of Paris, Faculty of Science, only to open a lecture for Pierre. 1905 Pierre was elected as a member of the French Academy of Sciences, only to talk about the dedication does not seek to take the Curies do not care about these in their view is not worth the problem. Along with the honor came a busy social life and frequent interviews with journalists. Their work and life, as well as their daughter, became news and conversation material in fashionable pubs. They were annoyed and disturbed by this; they needed quiet, to get on with their work, not to be harassed. For this reason they had to disguise themselves, like runaways, and hide out in the evasive countryside. When an American journalist opportunely found them, Mary told him quite frankly: "In science we should pay attention to things, not to people." When some technicians who wanted to establish a radium industry in the United States asked Mr. and Mrs. Curie to apply for a patent for this invention, the couple decided after deliberation: "Not wishing to obtain material benefits as a result of our discovery, we will not obtain a patent license, and we will publish the results of our research, including the technique of producing radium, without reservation. If anyone interested in radium asks us for guidance, we will give it in detail, and in doing so will be of great benefit to the development of the radium industry, which can develop freely in France and other countries, and supply its products to scholars and doctors who need radium for their applications." Such a statement can be seen in the selflessness and broad-mindedness possessed by Mr. and Mrs. Curie, who regarded the fruits of their scientific research as the ****same wealth of all mankind.

Heavy burden, the spirit of dedication

Between 1899 and 1904, Mr. and Mrs. Curie **** published 32 academic papers, focusing on their contribution to the development of radiology as a new field of science. When they are to multiply the enthusiasm to continue to move forward, an unfortunate thing happened. 19 April 1906, Pierre in the scientists to participate in a gathering, walking home crossing the road, was a Mercedes freight wagon knocked down, and lost his precious life on the spot. For Mrs. Curie, the blow was so heavy that it almost made her a lifeless, lonely and pitiful woman. But the love of science, Curie's instructions: "No matter what happens, even if a person becomes a body without a soul, he should work as usual." Inspired her. She bravely took over Curie's teaching position during his lifetime and became the first woman professor at the University of Paris in France. When she gave her first lecture as Professor of Physics, the people who attended filled that terraced classroom, jammed the corridors of the Faculty of Science, and even stood in the square of the Sorbonne because they could not fit into the Faculty of Science. In addition to the students, the audience included many social activists, journalists, artists and housewives who were strangers to Mary. They had come to hear the lecture and, more importantly, to pay tribute to this great woman.

Marie after the death of Curie, not only to live on the old age to care for the young, more importantly, to inherit the cause of Curie, the radiology of this course to teach better, to build up a worthy of Curie's laboratory, so that more young scientists to grow up in this place, **** with the development of science. To this end she took over all of Curie's burdens and continued to contribute all of her talent and heart.

In 1908, Pierre Curie's posthumous work was organized and revised by Marie, and in 1910, Marie's own academic monograph, Monographs on Radioactivity, appeared. After in-depth and meticulous research, Marie, with the help of her assistants, succeeded in preparing and analyzing metallic radium, once again accurately determining the atomic weight of the element radium. She also accurately determined the half-life of oxygen, thus determining the radioactive half-life of radium, the uranium-radium family, and many of the elements in the uranium-radium family, and studied the radiochemical properties of radium. On the basis of these studies, Mary organized the metamorphosis relationship of these radioactive elements according to the Mendeleev's periodic law. 1910 September, at the International Radiological Conference held in Brussels, Belgium, in order to seek an international common unit of radioactivity and the standard of radium, organized a committee of 10 people, including Mary. The committee recommended the intensity of 1 gram of pure radium as the unit of radioactivity and named it after Curie (in 1975, the 15th International Congress of Weights and Measures adopted the Becquerel as the unit of the International System of Units (SIU), and the original unit, the Curie, was abolished). 1912, the committee met again in Paris, and chose the radium tube, which had been prepared by Marie Curie, as the international standard of radium, and which has been placed in the International Bureau of Weights and Measures (IBWM) in Paris to this day as the world's standard of radium. It is still in the International Bureau of Weights and Measures in Paris as the first specimen of radium in the world. Marie Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911 for her outstanding contribution to the isolation of metallic radium and the study of its properties. Her body became weaker and weaker as a result of the long hours of labor, especially the damage caused by radioactive substances. Her scientific endeavors sustained her and made her defy the disease, and when she realized her condition, she devoted herself to her work with even greater fervor. As long as her body could move, she had to go to the laboratory, and when she felt physically exhausted, she insisted on writing a book at home, grasping the last moment of her life to make a final dedication.

July 4, 1934, long-term accumulation of radioactive substances in the body caused by pernicious anemia that is leukemia finally took the precious life of Madame Curie. Although she left this world, her contribution to mankind and her noble behavior will always be remembered in people's hearts.

Madame Curie's Quotations

The weak wait for the right moment; the strong make the right moment.

--Madame Curie

We should not waste our lives, we should be able to say, "I have done what I could."

--Madame Curie

On the road to fame, not sweat but blood was shed, and their names were written not with a pen but with their lives.

- Madame Curie-

I thought that people could lead interesting and useful lives at every period. We should not waste our lives, we should be able to say, "We have done what I could," and that is all that can be asked of us, and that is the only way in which we can be at all happy.

If one lives according to one's ideals, if one acts with integrity and freedom of spirit, with courage and perseverance, with honesty and without self-deception, one is sure to attain the highest degree of beauty and goodness. -Madame Curie

Live happily every day, and do not wait until the days are past to find out what is lovely about them, nor put all our hopes of special favor in the future. -------- Madame Curie

There is nothing to fear in life, only things to be understood. (Madame Curie) (France)

The unseen world of mankind is not the phantom of an empty imagination, but an actual existence illuminated by the light of science. Honored is the power of science. ---Madame Curie (France)

I have never been fortunate, and I shall never expect to be fortunate in the future; my highest principle is: never to yield to any difficulty whatever! ---Madame Curie (France)

It may seem that none of our lives are easy, but what does that matter? We should have perseverance and especially self-confidence! ---Madame Curie (France)

We have to eat, sleep, browse, and fall in love, that is to say, we have to be in touch with the sweetest things in life, though we must not give in to them.

--Madame Curie (France)

Biography

Madame Curie, whose maiden name was Maerya Sklodowska in Polish, was born on November 7, 1867, in Warsaw, Poland, to a family of teachers.

The world's recognition of Madame Curie was influenced in part by her second daughter's biography, Madame Curie, published in 1937. The book glorifies Madame Curie's life and deals with the twists and turns she encountered throughout her life in a matter-of-fact manner.

American biographer Susan Quinn has spent seven years publishing a new book, Maria Curie: A Life, which collects unpublished diary and biographical material, including that of Curie's family members and friends, to paint a much more detailed and in-depth picture of her grueling, harrowing and struggling life. images.

In the history of world science, Marie Curie is an eternally immortal name. This great woman scientist, with her own diligence and talent, has made outstanding contributions to both physics and chemistry, and as a result has become the only famous scientist who has won the Nobel Prize twice in two different disciplines. Einstein, in his assessment of the life of Mrs. Curie, said:

"The greatest feat of her life - the proof of the existence of radioactive elements and their isolation - was therefore made possible, not only by bold intuition, but also by the zeal and tenacity of working under unimaginable and extremely difficult circumstances. Such difficulties are rare in the history of experimental science. If even a small part of the strength of character and enthusiasm of Madame Curie existed among the intellectuals of Europe, Europe would face a brighter future."

I. Self-education to the University of Paris

Marie Curie was the youngest of five children in her family, and the brightest. Her father was a secondary school mathematics and science teacher with a very limited income, and her mother was also a secondary school teacher. Marie's childhood was unfortunate; her mother had a serious contagious disease, and it was her big sister who took care of her while she was growing up. Later, her mom and big sister fell ill and died when she was less than 10 years old. Her life was full of hardships. Such a living environment not only cultivated her ability to live independently, but also enabled her to hone a very strong character from an early age.

Mary has been a very diligent student since she was a child, and has a strong interest and special hobby in learning, never letting go of any opportunity to learn, and showing a tenacious enterprising spirit everywhere. From the beginning of elementary school, she took the first place in every subject, and at the age of 15, she graduated from secondary school with a gold medal. Her father had studied physics at St. Petersburg University, and her father's hunger for scientific knowledge and strong sense of enterprise also y inspired little Mary. Since she was a child, she loved all kinds of instruments in her father's laboratory, and when she grew up, she read many books on natural sciences, which made her full of fantasies, and she was eager to explore the world of science. At the age of 19, however, she began to work as a permanent tutor, and at the same time, she studied on her own in order to prepare for her future studies. At the age of 24, she finally arrived at the Faculty of Science of the University of Paris. With a strong desire to learn, she listened to every class with full attention. The hard study made her health become worse and worse, but her academic performance was always among the best, which not only made her classmates envy, but also made the professors amazed. Two years after her enrollment, she took the examination for the degree of Bachelor of Science in Physics with full confidence, and she took the first place among the 32 applicants. The following year, she took the B.A. degree in mathematics, again with second place honors.

Early in 1894, Marie accepted a scientific research project on the magnetism of various types of iron and steel proposed by the National Committee for the Promotion of Industry of France*** and the State. In the course of completing this scientific project, she met Pierre Curie, a teacher at the School of Physics and Chemistry, who was an accomplished young scientist. The desire to use science for the benefit of mankind **** led to their union. After her marriage, Marie was respectfully addressed as Madame Curie, and in 1896, Madame Curie completed her postgraduate exams with a first-place finish. The next year, she also completed the study of the magnetism of various kinds of steel. However, she was not satisfied with the results achieved, determined to take the doctoral examination, and determined her own research direction. Standing on a new starting line.

Two, the light of radium

1896, France **** and the country's physicists Becquerel published a working paper, a detailed description of his discovery of the element uranium through a number of experiments, uranium and its compounds have a special ability, it can automatically and continuously put out a kind of human eyes invisible rays, this kind of rays and the general light is different, can be through the black paper to make the Photographic film sensitization, it is also different from the discovery of roentgen rays with roentgen, in the absence of high-vacuum gas discharge and the conditions of the external high voltage, but can occur automatically from uranium and uranium salts. Uranium and its compounds constantly emit rays, radiating energy outward. This intrigued Madame Curie. What was the source of this energy? And what was the nature of this distinctive ray? Madame Curie was determined to unravel its secrets. 1897, Madame Curie chose her own research topic - the study of radioactive substances. This research topic brought her into the new world of science. She diligently reclaimed a virgin land and finally accomplished one of the most important discoveries in modern scientific history - the discovery of the radioactive element radium, and laid the foundation of modern radiochemistry, making a great contribution to mankind.

In her experimental research, Mrs. Curie designed a measuring instrument that could not only measure the presence or absence of rays from a certain substance, but also the strength of the rays. After repeated experiments, she found that the strength of uranium rays was proportional to the amount of uranium in a substance, but not to the state of uranium or external conditions.

Mrs. Curie carried out a comprehensive examination of the known chemical elements and all compounds, and made an important discovery: an element called thorium can also automatically emit invisible rays, which indicates that the phenomenon of the element being able to emit rays is by no means limited to the characteristics of uranium but is the same as that of some of the elements ****. She called this phenomenon radioactivity, and the elements with this property are called radioactive elements. The rays they emit are called "radioactivity". She also predicted on the basis of the results of her experiments that minerals containing uranium and thorium must be radioactive and minerals not containing uranium and thorium must not be radioactive. Instrumental examination fully verified her prediction. She excluded those minerals that did not contain radioactive elements and concentrated on those that did, measuring precisely the intensity of radioactivity of the elements. In her experiments, she found that the intensity of radioactivity of a pitchblende was much higher than expected, which indicated that the experimental minerals contained a new, unknown radioactive element, and that the amount of this element must have been very small, because this mineral had already been precisely analyzed by many chemists. She decisively announced her discovery in the report of her experiments, and endeavored to confirm it by experiment. At this critical moment, her husband, Pierre Curie, also realized the importance of his wife's discovery and stopped his own research on crystallization to join her in studying the new element. After several months of work, they isolated a substance mixed with bismuth from the ore that was far more radioactive than uranium, polonium, which was later listed as number 84 on the periodic table. A few months later, they discovered another new element and named it radium. However, Mr. and Mrs. Curie were not immediately delighted with their success. When they got their hands on a little compound of the new element, they realized that their original estimate had been too optimistic. In fact, the ore contained less than one part per million of radium. It is only because the mixture is extremely radioactive that substances containing traces of radium salts exhibit radioactivity hundreds of times greater than that of uranium.

The road to science is never smooth. The discovery of polonium and radium, and the properties of these radioactive new elements, shook up some of the basic theories and fundamental concepts that had been in place for centuries. Scientists have traditionally believed that the atoms of various elements are the smallest unit of material existence, and that atoms are indivisible and unchangeable. The radiation emitted by the radioactive elements polonium and radium cannot be explained according to the traditional view. Therefore, both physicists and chemists, although interested in the research work of Madame Curie, have doubts in their minds. The chemists, in particular, were more critical. In order to finally confirm this scientific discovery, and to further study the various properties of radium, Mr. and Mrs. Curie had to isolate more, and pure, radium salts from the pitch ore.

Everything unknown is mysterious. At the beginning of their research work to isolate the new element, they did not know any of its chemical properties. The only clue to finding the new element was that it was highly radioactive. They created a new method of chemical analysis accordingly. But they had no money, no real laboratory, only some simple instruments they had bought or designed themselves. They divided their research for reasons of efficiency. Mr. Curie experimented to determine the properties of radium; Madame Curie continued to refine pure radium salts.

By the end of 1902, Madame Curie had refined one-tenth of a gram of very pure radium chloride and had accurately determined its atomic weight. From then on, the existence of radium was confirmed. Radium is a kind of natural radioactive material which is extremely difficult to get, its form is glossy, white crystal like fine salt, radium has a slightly blue fluorescence, and it is this beautiful light blue fluorescence that incorporates a woman's beautiful life and unyielding faith. In spectral analysis, it is different from the spectral lines of any known element. Although radium is not the first radioactive element discovered by mankind, it is the most radioactive element. By utilizing its powerful radioactivity, many new properties of radioactivity can be further identified. so that many elements can be used for further practical applications. Medical research found that radium rays for a variety of different cells and tissues, the role is very different, those cells that reproduce quickly, once the radium irradiation are soon destroyed. This discovery made radium a powerful means of treating cancer. Cancerous tumors are composed of cells that multiply abnormally fast, and radium rays do far more damage to them than to the healthy tissue around them. This new method of treatment was soon developed in all countries of the world. In France*** and the United States, radium therapy was known as Curie therapy. The discovery of radium fundamentally changed the basic principles of physics, for the promotion of the development of scientific theory and application in practice, are of great importance.

Three, the heart of gold

Because of the amazing discovery of Mr. and Mrs. Curie, in December 1903, they were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics with Becquerel. The couple's scientific achievements cover the world, however, they are extremely contemptuous of fame and fortune, the most bored with those boring entertainment. They devoted themselves to the cause of science without any personal gain. After the successful refining of radium, some people advised them to apply for a patent from the government and monopolize the manufacture of radium so as to make a fortune. Mrs. Curie said: "That is against the spirit of science, the research results of scientists should be published publicly, and other people should not be subjected to any restriction if they want to develop it". "Besides, radium is good for patients, we should not use it to make a profit". Mr. and Mrs. Curie also took the Nobel Prize money they received and gave it away in large quantities.

In 1906, Mr. Curie unfortunately died in a car accident, Mrs. Curie suffered great pain, she was determined to redouble her efforts to complete the two people **** the same scientific volunteers. The University of Paris decided that Madame Curie would succeed Mr. Curie in teaching physics. Madame Curie became the first ever female professor at the prestigious University of Paris, still at the time when the couple isolated the first radium salts, and began research on the various properties of radiation. Between 1889 and 1904 alone, they published 32 scholarly reports documenting their explorations in the science of radioactivity, and in 1910, Madame Curie completed her book, Monographa de Radioactivity. She also collaborated with others to successfully produce metallic radium, and in 1911, Mrs. Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. A woman scientist, in less than 10 years, twice in two different fields of science, won the world's highest prize in science, which is unique in the history of world science!

In 1914, the Institut de Radium was established in Paris, and Madame Curie served as its research director. Later she continued to teach at the university and to work on radioactive elements. She was unstinting in her efforts to spread scientific knowledge to all who wanted to learn. She began at the age of 16 and studied and worked as an adult for exactly 50 years. But she still doesn't change that strict lifestyle. She grew up with a high degree of self-sacrifice, and in her early years she was willing to work as a servant in other people's homes to pay for her sister's schooling. During her studies in Paris, she read in the library every night until it closed in order to save money on lamp oil and heating expenses. The bituminous uranium ore needed to extract pure radium was very expensive at that time, and they saved little by little from their own living expenses and bought 8 or 9 tons of it successively. After Mr. Curie's death, Mrs. Curie gave the radium, which had been refined with great efforts and valued at up to more than 1,000,000 gold francs, to a laboratory for researching the cure of cancer without any compensation.

In 1932, at the age of 65, Mrs. Curie returned to her homeland to attend the opening ceremony of the Warsaw Radium Institute. Since her youth, Mrs. Curie has been away from her country, and went to France **** and the country to study. But she never forgot her motherland. When she was a child, her native Poland was invaded by Tsarist Russia, and she hated the invaders very much. When the couple isolated a new element from a mineral, she named it polonium. This is because the root of polonium is the same as the root of the name of Poland. It was a way of expressing her deep nostalgia for her country, which had been enslaved by the Tsarist Russians.

On July 14, 1937, Madame Curie died after a long illness. She eventually died of pernicious anemia. She spent her life creating and developing the science of radioactivity, fearlessly researching intensely radioactive substances for a long time until she finally gave her life to this science, and she changed from a pretty little girl, a dignified and resolute female scholar, to a new term in science textbooks, "radiation", to a new unit of measurement in physics. "Curie" into a law of science, she became a permanent milestone in the history of science. In her life, *** has won 10 kinds of famous prizes, including the Nobel Prize, and 16 medals issued by international high-level academic institutions; the world's governments and scientific research institutions awarded a variety of titles up to more than 100. But she is as modest and prudent as ever. The great scientist Albert Einstein commented, "In all the famous people I know, Mrs. Curie is the only one who is not overwhelmed by fame."