15-21 Rue de l'École de Médecine, 75006 Paris, France
Curie entered the Faculty of Sciences at the Sorbonne from where he earned his licence ès sciences in 1878.
Gallery of Pierre Curie
10 Rue Vauquelin, 75005 Paris, France
In 1895, Curie obtained a Doctor of Science degree from École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles and was appointed Professor of Physics.
Career
Gallery of Pierre Curie
1895
Pierre and Marie Curie on their honeymoon bicycle trip, 1895.
Gallery of Pierre Curie
1898
Pierre and Marie Curie in their laboratory.
Gallery of Pierre Curie
1903
Pierre Curie in the laboratory
Gallery of Pierre Curie
1904
Pierre and Marie Curie with their daughter Irène
Gallery of Pierre Curie
1905
French physicists Marie Curie (right), Pierre Curie (center), and chemist Gustave Bémont (left) in the laboratory.
Gallery of Pierre Curie
1905
Pierre Curie
Gallery of Pierre Curie
1906
Pierre Curie lecturing in a classroom, at the Sorbonne, 1906.
In 1895, Curie obtained a Doctor of Science degree from École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles and was appointed Professor of Physics.
Pierre Curie was a French physicist, chemist, and co-winner with his wife Marie Curie of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903. He was one of the founding fathers of modern physics and is best known for being a pioneer in radioactive studies.
Background
Pierre Curie was born on May 15, 1859, to Eugene Curie and his wife Sophie Claire Curie in Paris, France. Pierre had an older brother, Paul-Jacques Curie.
His family originated from Mulhouse in Alsace before the German annexation of Alsace and Lorraine at the end of the nineteenth century. Pierre Curie’s grandfather, Paul Étienne François Gustave, and father, Eugène, were physicians.
Education
Pierre Curie received much of his early education at home, where he showed an interest in mathematics.
At the age of 16, Curie was enrolled at the Faculty of Sciences at the Sorbonne from where he earned his licence ès sciences in 1878. But lack of money forced him to put off work toward his doctorate indefinitely. Instead, he continued to research at the Sorbonne until 1883.
Later, Curie joined the faculty of École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles (Industrial Physics and Chemistry Higher Educational Institution) in Paris. For his doctoral thesis, Pierre Curie experimented to see if any transitions existed between the three types of magnetism: ferromagnetism, paramagnetism, and diamagnetism. In 1895, he obtained a Doctor of Science degree from École Supérieure de Physique et de Chimie Industrielles and was appointed Professor of Physics.
During his early career, he used to work in collaboration with his brother, Jacques. Together they studied crystallography and discovered piezoelectric effects. Working in this field made him turn his attention to magnetism.
In 1880, Pierre and Jacques demonstrated that an electric potential was generated when crystals were compressed, and the next year they demonstrated the reverse effect: that crystals could be made to deform when subject to an electric field. Almost all digital electronic circuits now rely on this phenomenon, known as piezoelectric effects, in the form of crystal oscillators.
In 1883, Jacques left to take up the head lectureship in mineralogy at the University of Montpellier. Montpellier being in the south of France and very distant from Paris, Jacques’ move ended the scientific collaboration of the brothers.
Together with his wife Pierre Curie conducted experiments on what would become known as radioactive substances. The couple did not even have a well-equipped laboratory to work in and they faced financial problems too. But nothing could dampen their passion for science.
Another scientist, Henri Becquerel, had discovered the concept that would later be called "radioactivity" in 1896 and the Curies were determined to study a mineral, pitchblende, which had superior radioactivity as compared to uranium.
The Curie couple discovered radium and polonium by fractionation of pitchblende in 1898. The discovery of radium and the work done by the couple in this field would pave the way for much of the subsequent research in the area of nuclear physics and chemistry.
Pierre focused on studying the luminous and chemical effects of radiations by calorimetry. His studies paved the way for further research leading to radium therapy.
He got a job offer from the University of Geneva which he declined in order to continue the work he had embarked on with his wife. He became the lecturer at the Sorbonne in 1900 and was promoted to a professorship in 1904.
In 1903, the Curies were awarded half of the Nobel Prize for Physics on account of their study into the spontaneous radiation discovered by Becquerel, who was awarded the other half of the prize. Along with his wife, Curie was awarded the Davy Medal of the Royal Society of London in 1903, and in 1905 he was elected to the Academy of Sciences.
Pierre Curie's brilliant career and inspiring life was tragically cut short by an accident. On April 19, 1906, a rainy day, Curie slipped and fell under a heavy horse-drawn wagon. He was killed instantly.
Happiest when working in the laboratory, Pierre despised the politics and flattery that were needed to advance in the tight little world of Paris professors. Still, it hurt when he was denied positions he deserved, for example in 1902 when he tried and failed to enter the French Academy of Sciences and in 1903 when he was rejected for a professorship of mineralogy.
Views
Pierre and his wife Marie Curie focused on minerals and especially on uranium ores, autunite and chalcolite and also on pitchblende that emitted radiation. To their surprise, they found that the intensity of the activity of pitchblende, a residue ore resulting from the uranium extraction, was four times higher than that of metallic uranium, whereas the activity of the mineral chalcolite (hydrous uranium cooper sulphate) was twice higher. To verify their results, Marie compared the radioactivity of natural and chemically prepared chalcolite, and found that natural chalcolite was about six times more radioactive than the chemical one.
In July 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie sent to the Académie des Sciences’ a new communication presented on behalf of them by H. Becquerel, on the discovery of a new substance which was associated with bismuth. This new substance was called "polonium." "We believe the substance we have extracted from pitchblende contains a metal not yet observed, related to bismuth by its analytical properties. If the existence of this new metal is confirmed, we propose to call it polonium, from the name of the original country of one of us."
Further research on pitchblende, led the Curies to the discovery of a second radioactive element chemically akin to barium. In December 1898, Henry Becquerel on behalf of the Curies, again presented their paper to the French Academy of Sciences reporting that Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the second radioactive element, which was called radium. As it was reported in this paper: "The various reasons we have just enumerated lead us to believe that the new radioactive substance contains a new element to which we propose to give the name radium. The new radioactive substance certainly contains a very strong proportion of barium; in spite of that its radioactivity is considerable. The radioactivity of radium must therefore be enormous."
The Curies had been told that their paper would not be accepted unless spectrometry confirmed the existence of the new element Eugene Demarçay, a French chemist and a famous spectrum specialist of his times, ended his presentation with the following conclusion: "The presence of the radiation 3814. 8 confirms the existence in small quantity, of a new element in the specimen of barium chloride, by Mr and Mme Curie."
In order to define polonium's and radium's physical properties and atomic weight, they had to process 500 tons of pitchblende from Bohemia and later from Colorado. At first, radium was extracted and after three years in 1902, they managed to obtain 0.1 g of radium chloride. The high radium content of this compound was such that it emitted a spontaneous and beautifully colored light "source of emotion and rapture" according to the Curies.
The Curies' work on radioactive elements also helped to elucidate the three main components of radioactive emissions, i.e. the alpha, beta, and gamma rays. The Curies also noticed the emergence of radioactivity from non-radioactive substances, from objects with close vicinity to the radioactive source, and also noticed the expontential decay of radioactivity. This phenomenon was due to the emanation of thoron gas by thorium and of radon gas by radium as identified by F.E. Dorn in 1901 and by E. Rutherford and F. Soddy in 1902.
The Curies observed that the radiation of radium could be deviated by electric and magnetic fields, and consisted mainly of two components, as Ernest Rutherford had observed for uranium one year before.
Besides their research in radioactivity, initial experiments in radiobiology should also be attributed to the Curies. The first report on the biological effects of radiation was from F. Walkhoff and F.O. Giesel in 1900, who observed the effects of radiation on the skin as compared to the X-rays effect. Pierre Curie reproduced F.O. Giesel's experiments by putting an amount of radioactive substance for 10 hours on his arm and published this report together with H. Becquerel in 1901. These effects varied from erythema to pigmentation, ulceration, healing, and telangiectasia. These findings led H. Danlos and P. Block at Saint Louis Hospital, to use radium sources for the treatment of lupus erythymatosus and other skin lesions in 1901.
Pierre Curie discovered so-called Curie's law - the effect of temperature on paramagnetism. The material constant in Curie's law is known as the Curie constant. Moreover, Pierre discovered that ferromagnetic substances exhibited a critical temperature transition, above which the substances lost their ferromagnetic behavior. This is now known as the Curie temperature which is used to study plate tectonics, treat hypothermia, measure caffeine, and to understand extraterrestrial magnetic fields.
Quotations:
"Alfred Nobel's discoveries are characteristic; powerful explosives can help men perform admirable tasks. They are also a means to terrible destruction in the hands of the great criminals who lead peoples to war."
"Is it right to probe so deeply into Nature's secrets? The question must here be raised whether it will benefit mankind, or whether the knowledge will be harmful."
"Radium could be very dangerous in criminal hands."
Personality
Pierre was interested in the paranormal, as he believed it might help him understand physics better and especially magnetism. He read books on spiritualism and attended seances, viewing them as scientific experiments. He took careful notes and measurements, concluding some phenomena he witnessed did not appear to be faked and could not be explained.
Physical Characteristics:
Pierre Curie had dyslexia.
The constant work with radioactive materials had a huge impact on Pierre’s health. He began to suffer from chronic skin lesions, especially on his hands and general symptoms such as pain and fatigue.
Quotes from others about the person
Marie Curie: "My husband and I were so closely united by our affection and our common work that we passed nearly all of our time together."
Connections
Pierre Curie was married to Marie Sklodowska-Curie.
Pierre's friend, physicist Jozef Wierusz-Kowalski, introduced him to Marie Sklodowska. Marie became Pierre's lab assistant and student. The first time Pierre proposed to Marie, she refused him, eventually agreeing to marry him on July 26, 1895.
They were married in a simple civil ceremony, not a church one, because of their non-religious outlook. Marie asked for a practical dress for her wedding, one that she could wear afterwards for work in the lab. For many years the Curies were poor, suffering great adversity and hardship, but they took great pleasure in life not only from their pursuit of scientific understanding but also from the enjoyment of simple pleasures such as cycling in the French countryside.
The couple had two daughters: Irène and Ève.
Pierre and Marie Curie's children and grandchildren also became important scientists. Their daughter Irene married Frederic Joliot and they were joint recipients of the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1935. The younger daughter, Eve, born in 1904, married the American diplomat H. R. Labouisse, who as Director of the United Nations' Children's Fund received on its behalf the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo in 1965. She is the author of a biography of her mother, Madame Curie, translated into several languages.
Their granddaughter Hélène Langevin-Joliot is a professor of nuclear physics at the University of Paris and their grandson, Pierre Joliot, named after Pierre Sr., is a noted biochemist.