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Groundbreaking discoveries in International acclaim results in
primitive conditions rewards at home | Serious health
issues overshadow joy

Leading up to their 1903 Nobel Prize, the Curies had to
isolate polonium and radium so the atomic weight of both Although he is now considered one of France’s (and
elements could be determined. They devised a new the world’s) preeminent scientists, over the years,
method of chemical research, whereby they progressively Pierre struggled for acceptance by the French scientific
separated pitchblende by chemical analysis and then establishment and was turned down for election to the
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measured the radioactivity of the separate elements. French Academy of Sciences and for professorships at
Marie and Pierre divided their labor—Marie as the chemist, the Sorbonne. Despite having been a child prodigy and
performing the physically demanding job of chemically an internationally acclaimed physicist, because of his
separating the pitchblende and Pierre as the physicist, unorthodox education—and because he didn’t attend the
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analyzing the physical properties of the substances “right” schools—he was seen as an outsider in the French
produced by Marie’s separations. scientific community.

The brilliant pair worked in primitive conditions with France had been less forthcoming than other countries
laboratory facilities that were woefully inadequate: an when it came to honoring and recognizing Pierre
abandoned wooden shed in a courtyard at ESPCI , with Curie. Appreciated outside France, Curie was offered a
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no hoods to carry off the toxic fumes, chemicals, metals, professorship at the University of Geneva in the spring
and poisonous gases released during the purification of 1900, but he turned it down so as not to interrupt the
process. Their research yielded a wealth of information Curies’ joint research on radium. He continued his work
about radioactivity, which they shared with the world in at ESPCI where he had served as Professor of General
a series of papers published between 1898 and 1904: Physics and Electrical Theory since earning his doctorate
Marie published 19 describing various aspects of her of science in 1895.
thesis research, she and Pierre co-authored 10, and
Pierre published 14 additional papers on other aspects of In early June 1903, both Curies were invited to London
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radioactivity. 8 as guests of the prestigious Royal Institution . Because
custom ruled out women lecturers, Pierre alone explained
After four years of steady labor, the Curies managed to their work in his “Friday Evening Discourse.” He went
extract one decigram of radium chloride from more than into in detail describing Marie’s crucial role in their
10 tons of pitchblende they had obtained from the Austrian collaboration. The audience included representatives
government. At night, Pierre and Marie would linger to of England’s social elite and such major scientists as
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marvel at the way their samples of radium chloride would Lord Kelvin , the president of London’s Royal Society,
illuminate their lab. who sat with Marie at the lecture and hosted a luncheon
in Pierre’s honor the next day. Only those closest to the
Radium was an instant commercial hit, yet the Curies Curies realized that not all was well. Pierre was in such
chose not to patent their findings or their radium- bad health and his hands so covered with sores that he
preparation process, which was the foundation of the had had trouble dressing himself before his lecture. His
lucrative radium industry, expressing their shared belief scarred hands shook so much during his presentation that
that any commercial value was an accident and that it he spilled a bit of the costly radium preparation he used
would be contrary to the scientific spirit. in his demonstration. (Fifty years later, the presence of
radioactivity was discovered there, and surfaces had to be
Their ethical standard wasn’t shared by entrepreneurs, cleaned thoroughly.)
opportunists, profiteers, and charlatans who quickly
capitalized on the Curies’ discovery and detailed Several months later, the Royal Society conferred
processes—and marketed radium as a wonder drug and the Davy medal on the Curies, and shortly thereafter,
cure-all, even adding it to makeup and paint. they were awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize in physics—
along with Becquerel—for their work on radioactivity.
Acknowledgement at home finally came for Curie
because of international recognition received by Pierre and
Marie, and the awards brought changes in their lives.

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