Maria Sklodowska-Curie
Maria Sklodowska-Curie is among the most famous scientists in the world who have made a vital contribution to the development of science. About her work in the study of radium, Nobel prizes and the discovery of institutions know everything. br>
But today, on the anniversary of her death, we want to talk a little bit about the personal history of this great woman, which is also worth to remember. Alas, it shows that for more than 100 years, little has changed in how society judges the actions of adults held on women. Talking about the relationship of the widowed Curie with the scientist Paul Langevin, who was married, but all the blame and the anger of the crowd when the affair became known, struck it at Mary.
Maria Sklodowska-Curie
Maria Sklodowska-Curie, known as the first scientist who managed to receive two Nobel prizes. The first awards she won in 1903, when she and her husband Pierre Curie was awarded the prize in physics for research in the field of radiation.
Then, in 1911, she received the Nobel prize in chemistry for the discovery of radium and polonium. But as it grew in prominence as a brilliant scientist, and increased the curiosity of the public to her personal life, especially after Mary was widowed in 1906.
Marie and Pierre Curie in the lab
four years after Pierre Curie died (he was run over by a horse-drawn carriage), Marie happened passionate affair with one of the former students of her husband, physicist Paul Langevin.
After the death of Pierre Mary was appointed in his place in the Department of exact Sciences of the Sorbonne to teach a physics course, and became the first in the history of the University and of France in General, a female teacher.
a scene from the movie “Marie Curie” (2016). In the role of Marie Curie Karolina gruszka
Langevin by that time, however, was already married and raised four children. In addition, Mary was under the age of five years most of the radioactivity at the time was 43 years.
Marriage Field was unhappy in one of the biographies described the episode as he appeared in the lab with bruises, admitting that his wife and mother-in-law beat him with a metal chair.
Paul Langevin
According to people from their surroundings, the two brought not only a fanatical dedication to science, but also the inner emptiness itself Curie heavily experienced the death of her husband and for some time struggled with depression. Shortly before the novel with the Field she lost another, and his father, who was her support after the death of Pierre.
the Lovers spend time together in Paris in a specially rented for meetings apartment near the Sorbonne, when the Langevin Jeanne wife suspected him of infidelity and decided to investigate.
Paul Langevin and his wife, Joan
She hired a detective that he stole a love�� letters, and began to blackmail them a few requiring you to stop not only personal, but also professional communication (the value of the work of Langevin she understood poorly, as he came from a family of merchants and rebuked spouse that he doesn’t earn).
Jeanne had even threatened Curie’s murder, and then is handed the letter to his relative, who was the editor of a Paris newspaper, the reason was that Paul and Mary participated in the same conference. Of course, the letters were published.
a scene from the movie “Marie Curie”: Ari Warchanter (Paul Langevin) and Karolina gruszka (Marie Curie)
I’m trembling with excitement at the thought to see you again and also to tell you how much I missed you. Kiss you tenderly in anticipation of tomorrow,
— personal declarations now read all the gossip of Paris.
the French newspaper gladly seized on this scandalous story. They began to imagine Maria insidious the other woman, a Jewess who seduced Langevin, though a Jewish girl she was not.
But it was done deliberately, because anti-Semitism was then common in Europe, but because such details only increased the public outrage and discontent.
Marie Curie (left) and Paul Langevin
captor husbands! Strumpet!
— such epithets awarded the reporters Curie.
in addition, she was accused of atheism, which in those days was a serious “disadvantage” in the eyes of public opinion.
At the moment when the scandal only broke out, Sklodowska-Curie was at the conference in Belgium, in Paris, she came back when the flames of popular anger was underway full swing. It was about an angry mob, demanding the expulsion of the Curie from the country, so that Mary with her two daughters went into hiding with her friend, the writer of Marbo Camille.
Marie Curie with her husband Pierre and daughter Irene
in an effort to defend the honor of the curies, Langevin called one of the editors of the newspaper to a duel. The two men went out “to battle” and came face-to-face 25 November 1911, but it came to nothing — shoot both refused.
On the side of the Curie rose and her colleague and friend albert Einstein. In the library of Harvard University kept his letter to Mary, which he wrote while in Prague, when the press began to attack the Curie for her affair with Paul.
If the mob is going to pester you, just stop reading this nonsense. Save it for the vipers, for which this story was fabricated
— wrote Einstein.
albert Einstein and Marie Curie
Defended Curie a scientist in his correspondence with another close friend, the Zurich physician Heinrich Zangara, calling into doubt that Maria could be a cruel temptress. Defended, however, in a rather peculiar��Oh a manner that may seem offensive.
Curie has a sparkling intelligence, but despite her passionate nature she is not attractive enough to represent a threat to anyone
— wrote Einstein.
it is Noteworthy that in the midst of the scandal became aware of the awarding of Marie Curie’s Nobel prize in chemistry. However, in Sweden the prospect of the arrival of the woman who made such a contribution to science, reacted with skepticism — no one wanted the gala evening was tainted by rumors and scandals. Representatives of the Royal Academy of Sciences strongly recommended that Curie not to come to Stockholm.
All my colleagues said that I don’t want you coming here. I also ask you to stay in France, because no one can predict what can happen during the presentation of awards. Honor, respect for our Academy and of science itself and of your country dictate that in these circumstances, you have rejected the idea of coming here to receive the award,
— it was said in the letter, compiled by the Secretary of the Academy of Sciences.
Mary, these tips are not listened to, clearly making it clear that her scientific achievements and her personal life in any case should not be mixed and influence each other.
I think there is absolutely no connection between my scientific work and the facts of my personal life that were wrongly filed and does not deserve the attention of respected people. I strongly perturbed because you don’t share my opinion
she wrote in response and in Stockholm for a well-deserved award, of course, came.
I would Like to remind that the discovery of radium was made by Pierre Curie, together with me. We also owe to Pierre Curie for his fundamental experiments in the field of radioactivity. My own work was chemical studies on the allocation of radium,
she said in her speech.
the affair with Langevin, shortly after almost getting a divorce, the man came back to his wife but this happy marriage did not become. A few years later Paul twisted new novel.
a scene from the movie “Marie Curie”
But Maria since then completely focused only on science — she’s considered a kind of tribute, a tribute to his favorite pier.
Broken destiny, I was not able to plan their future, however, could not forget that my husband used to say that even if it will not, I must continue my work,
— so she wrote after the death of Pierre Curie.
but the Parallels of this story with the day today, alas, is obvious. Novels of adult women with men younger than them are considered by the public worse than couples where the older man.
suffice it to recall the endless hours of entertainment.��governmental hate Kate beckinsale. And in the case of adultery, what would it neither was reason, on the bench, “the accused” often turns out to be a woman “the home wrecker, who stole the man”!
Science over the past century has clearly moved forward stronger than public opinion.
