Page 16 - index

Laboratory Leaders

Love among the ruins | 1911 Solvay Congress | Marie’s second Nobel Prize

In 1910, Marie finally emerged from her deep depression following Pierre’s death and stepped into the throes of
scandal and emotional turmoil. She had allowed herself to be nominated for a vacancy in the French Academy of
Sciences, and a rival faction set out to destroy her reputation by branding her an “outsider” in the press, and she
lost to another physicist by two votes. Despite the uproar, she published a comprehensive textbook, A Treatise on
Radioactivity, and secured the right to define an international standard for radium emissions, which was essential
to ensure an efficient radium industry as well as uniform medical standards. This measure was accepted by the
international scientific community who named it the Curie.

Before the end of 1911, Marie would find her name smeared in the press again. Four years after the death of
her soulmate, she and fellow physicist and longtime scientific colleague and friend, Paul Langevin (Pierre’s
former doctoral student), fell in love. Although he and his wife were estranged, they had four young children,
and Langevin—a Catholic—could not divorce. With the help of a private investigator, Madame Langevin
discovered their affair and the apartment where the two lovers met. In the spring of 1911, she had their
passionate correspondence stolen from their hideaway. For the next eight months, she threatened to expose them.

Late in October 1911, Marie and Langevin, as
well as 16 leading scientists from across Europe,
met for the first of a famous sequence of Solvay
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conferences in Brussels, Belgium. This historical
meeting was mainly devoted to The Theory of
Radiation and the Quanta at a time when the
foundations of physics were completely shaken.
During the previous 20 years, curious scientists—
including Pierre and Marie Curie—had uncovered
new phenomena (e.g., X-rays, the photoelectric
effect, nuclear radiation, and electrons) that were
rocking the very foundations of physics.

Leading physicists believed circumstances
were dire enough to warrant an international
symposium that could attempt to resolve the
situation. This marked the beginning of the Figure 1. 1911 Solvay Conference on Physics
quantum revolution, and reverberations from
this meeting are still felt to this day. Our Seated (L-R): Walther Nernst, Marcel Brillouin, Ernest Solvay, Hendrik
Lorentz, Emil Warburg, Jean Baptiste Perrin, Wilhelm Wien, Marie Curie,
knowledge of mysteries such as the Higgs and Henri Poincaré. Standing (L-R): Robert Goldschmidt, Max Planck,
boson, dark matter, and dark energy is only Heinrich Rubens, Arnold Sommerfeld, Frederick Lindemann, Maurice de
Broglie, Martin Knudsen, Friedrich Hasenöhrl, Georges Hostelet, Edouard
possible thanks to the foundations laid down Herzen, James Hopwood Jeans, Ernest Rutherford, Heike Kamerlingh
at the first Solvay Conference. The official Onnes, Albert Einstein, and Paul Langevin.
photograph of this event looks like a veritable Photograph by Benjamin Couprie, 1911.
“Who’s Who” of luminary physical scientists
(Fig. 1).

On November 4, while still in Belgium the day after the conference ended, Marie was contacted by telegram
informing her that Mme. Langevin had publicly accused her and Langevin of having a tawdry love affair and
running away together to Brussels. (Their accuser still had not released the stolen love letters.) Three days later,
Marie would learn that she had won her second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry for her discovery of polonium
and radium. She was now the first woman to win the prize and the first person to win it twice.

The affair between the two scientists scandalized Paris after Mme. Langevin charged her estranged husband with
an adulterous affair, demanding money as well as custody of their children. Marie, “the foreigner,” was vilified
again in the press, and on her return home, she found an angry mob in front of her house and had to flee the city
with her daughters. Émile and Marguerite Borel provided refuge and kept the press away.
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SCC Quarterly | Volume 5 • Issue 4 | Laboratory Leaders