Analysis:
Madame Curie: the bitterness behind glory
Rao Yi
As an outstanding scientist, Madame Curie has social influence that ordinary scientists do not have. Especially because she is a pioneer of successful women, her model has inspired many people. Many people heard her story when they were young, but they got a simplified and incomplete impression. The world's understanding of Madame Curie. It was greatly influenced by the biography Madame Curie published by her second daughter 1937. This book beautifies Madame Curie's life and deals with all the twists and turns she encountered in her life. American biographer susan quinn spent seven years collecting unpublished diaries and biographical materials, including Madame Curie's family members and friends. Last year, a new book, Maria Curie: A Life, was published, which described her hard, bitter and struggling life in more detail.
life experience
If you just look at your resume, it's easy to think that Maria Curie is just a successful scientist with smooth sailing. She was born in Warsaw, Poland on June 1867+0 1. There is a brother, three sisters, and both parents are teachers. She/kloc-graduated from high school with the first place at the age of 0/5. Then I worked as a tutor for several years. 189 1, I went to the Sorbonne, the merged university in Paris, and graduated from 1894 with two certificates in mathematics and physics. 1895, she married pierre curie, who taught at the Paris Institute of Industrial Physical Chemistry. 1897, her eldest daughter Ilyina was born in the autumn. Previously on ... She did magnetic research with gabriel lippmann of Paris University and published her first paper. At this time, in order to prepare her doctoral thesis, she started a new project in Pierre's laboratory, and Pierre soon joined his wife's work. Their experiment notes started from1897 65438+February 6th, and recorded the first observation of polonium on February 7th1898. After several months of follow-up analysis, they put forward two important findings in the report formally submitted to the French Academy of Sciences on July 18: one is the element polonium, and the other is the concept of R radioactivity. The discovery of purification of polonium and separation of another new element radium is of great significance to chemical research. Radioactivity research is a breakthrough in the study of substance essence. 1903 In June, Madame Curie passed the thesis defense and was awarded the doctor's degree in physics. 165438+1At the beginning of October, the Curies were awarded the humphry davy Medal); Royal society; 165438+1In mid-October, I learned that becquerel and I won the Nobel Prize in physics in recognition of their research on radioactive phenomena. 1905 They got their second daughter Eve. Pierre died in 1906. 19 1 1 Madame Curie won the Nobel Prize in chemistry. In recognition of her discovery of polonium and radium. Madame Curie died in 1934. 1935, her eldest daughter, Elon, and her son-in-law Frederic Joliot-Curie won the Nobel Prize in chemistry (their scientific discoveries were known to Madame Curie when she was alive). 1937 Madame Curie, published by my second daughter, became a popular biography all over the world.
If only measured by career achievements. It is not hard to imagine that Madame Curie was very happy all her life. She set two records: the same family won the largest number of Nobel Prizes, and one person won two Nobel Prizes. However, the success of a career cannot be simply put into the formula of "talent, effort and opportunity", otherwise the individual's unique personality and experience will be submerged. Reading Susan Quinn's new book, we can see that Madame Curie's life is not smooth sailing, and she has to face many adversity that ordinary people will encounter, from which we can also see Madame Curie's character.
family life
Madame Curie's life can be divided into three periods: before marriage, after marriage and after Pierre's death.
Maria lived a stable family life in her childhood, but her childhood was not very happy. Her mother has been suffering from tuberculosis since 187 1 and has been in convalescence for a long time. She died at the age of 10, and her sister died of typhoid fever the year before last. Her father lost her teaching position when she was 6 years old. She had to turn her home into a boarding school to recruit students, which had a certain impact on her family life. At that time, Poland was occupied by Russia, and it was stipulated that teachers could only teach in Russian. Polish teachers ignored the ban and still taught in Polish daily at work, taking care of Polish history. When the Russian inspector came to spot check, it was changed to Russian. An excellent student like Maria is often selected to recite Russian to the inspectors in this case. This kind of school life increased the mental burden of students at that time.
After graduating from high school, Maria faced a woman's choice: to get married or to develop her own career. When she was a tutor, she fell in love with the eldest son of a family for several years. Later, because the man's father thought that her family's economic situation was not good, she broke up, which caused a certain blow to her.
As for Pierre, she was introduced one year before she graduated from college. Pierre is an unsociable person, nine years older than her, but their marriage is the happiest stage in her life, not only because of scientific research cooperation, but also because of their happy family life. They often spend their holidays with their families. Even in the summer of 1898, when the research work was the busiest, I left the laboratory for several months. At home, Madame Curie does housework: since she got married, she has kept family accounts in a notebook; In addition, she also recorded the growth of her two daughters. What best reflects the happiness of this marriage is the blow to Madame Curie caused by Pierre's death. After Pierre was killed by a carriage, Madame Curie wrote to him every day for a year!
After Pierre's death, the eldest daughter was in school age, and Madame Curie organized several scientists who were dissatisfied with the education system of "emphasizing literature over reason" at that time. A mobile home school was established, and parents took turns to teach math, science and chemistry. This lasted for two years.
About 19 10 years. Madame Curie began to fall in love with the famous physicist Lang Zhiwan. Langevin is a friend of the Curies. Used to be Pierre's student. He is married and has two sons, but his marriage is very unhappy. His wife and Yue family often quarrel with him and even start fighting with him. Maria's love with Langevin developed rapidly, and she expressed her willingness to build a new life with Langevin. However, in 19 1 1, Mrs. Langevin intercepted their letters and made them public, which made French public opinion furious and criticized Maria for breaking up other people's beautiful families. It is said that a strong woman bullies her wife and mother, and foreign women destroys French social values (when praising Madame Curie, she is not Polish but French). The whole incident was so violent that Langevin even fought a duel for it. Finally, Langevin returned to his wife, and Maria became Madame Curie for life.
social approval
Although the Curies made important contributions to science, they were not accepted by the French scientific community and society.
Pierre was withdrawn from his childhood, his family did not belong to the upper class, and his school was not top-notch. His teaching position is only in the College of Physical Chemistry, not in the nearby famous Sorbonne University. 1898 and 1902, Pierre failed to win the Sorbonne twice; 1902 failed to enter the French Academy of Sciences. It was not until 1905 that he got his wish.
As for Madame Curie, she never entered the French Academy of Sciences. 19 10, she was nominated as an academician of the academy of sciences, which instantly became the center of the French debate: can women have their own careers? Newspapers, tabloids and people of all factions have different views; The vote of the Academy of Sciences has become the focus of public attention. In the end, she lost to another scientist by 28 votes to 30. Since then, she has never run. Until more than fifty years later. One of her female students became the first female academician of the French Academy of Sciences.
Madame Curie taught in a girls' normal school in her early years. I didn't have my own laboratory until I won the Nobel Prize. After Pierre's death, Sorbonne gave his laboratory (he was admitted to Sorbonne after winning the prize) to Madame Curie. But I didn't give her Pierre's original professorship.
Madame Curie's two Nobel Prizes were also tortuous. She was not formally nominated for the award of 1903. At that time, the nomination letter said that pierre curie and becquerel cooperated closely and should win the prize together. Actually. Pierre always hated becquerel. They never worked together, and becquerel himself went it alone. A Swedish mathematician informed Pierre of the contents of the nomination letter. Therefore, he wrote to the Swedish Academy Science Association and asked for a joint nomination with Madame Curie. But this is not a formal nomination letter. Results It was not until 1902 that the Swedish Academy Science Award was replaced by a pathologist from the French Academy of Medical Sciences that Madame Curie became one of the three winners. But ... the Swedish Academy only invited Pierre to give an academic report, but not Madame Curie.
After the Curie couple 1903 won the prize. Public opinion has always placed Madame Curie in a subordinate position, saying that she is her husband's good assistant. "He thinks so" and "She does so". In fact, among them, Pierre prefers to start work, while Madame Curie emphasizes theoretical thinking. In the process of discovering radioactive elements, they cooperated closely and made their own contributions. However, the media insisted on portraying Madame Curie as a supporting role. Pierre had a newspaper after he was elected an academician. Published an interview with Madame Curie, saying that she was happy for her husband's success, and declared that a woman's only wish was to help her husband work. The next day, Madame Curie denied the report. She wrote to the newspaper that she had never talked to anyone in the newspaper and never expressed the meaning of the report to anyone.
When Madame Curie won the prize for the second time, the Langevin incident happened. French newspapers and magazines talk about their relationship, but no one can produce direct evidence. 1911165438+1October 7, Reuters reported that the chemistry prize of that year was awarded to Madame Curie. 165438+1On October 23rd, Madame Langevin published a love letter from Madame Curie to Langevin in the newspaper through her brother. After the publication of this letter, Svante Arrhenius, a famous physical chemist from the Swedish Academy of Sciences, wrote a letter to Madame Curie, asking her to write a letter to the Swedish Academy of Sciences, saying that she was unwilling to accept the prize. Madame Curie was greatly hurt by this, but she refused to "resign" imposed on her and replied that science has nothing to do with personal life, and I will act according to my beliefs. 65438+ February 1 1 and 12. Madame Curie went to Stockholm to accept the second Nobel Prize and made her first Nobel speech.
As can be seen from Susan Quinn's new book, an outstanding scientist will also encounter the troubles of ordinary people, and these troubles are often amplified in public figures. In recent years, the new biographies of historical figures are more analytical, and the old maps of "heroes" and "demons" have been revised one by one. In fact, a person who is flesh and blood and can be understood by the public has extraordinary achievements or misdeeds. Isn't it easier to get thinking?
People who have been exposed to various "heroic histories" often find that the characters in the books can't be found in reality. One reaction is confusion and the other is disappointment. Perhaps, historical figures have not lived as described in some "history books"!