IN MEMORIUM: THE CURIE EFFECT

The Dawn  11 November 2012

http://dawn.com/2012/11/11/in-memoriam-the-curie-effect/

In memoriam: The Curie effect

By Rabia Ahmed | From InpaperMagzine | 

Maria Slodowska
(Marie Curie)

On November 7, more than 600 years ago, the large Ensisheim Meteorite struck a field in France, but it was Maria Slodowska, born on the same day in 1867, who had a much greater impact, even to this day. She was one of three people who discovered radium which is used in the treatment of cancer, and to alleviate its symptoms. The process is known as radiotherapy.

Although Maria was Polish, Poland as a country no longer existed; it had merged into the Russian Empire. The Russians neither allowed women to enrol in the University of Warsaw, nor did they permit Poles to teach science. So Maria Slodowska became the French ‘Marie’ when she moved to Paris at age 24, as a science student at the University of Sorbonne.

Marie and Pierre Curie were married in 1895. Pierre earned a PhD in science, while Marie became the first woman to receive a PhD anywhere in the world, in any subject, much less at the Sorbonne. Her subject was also science, and her research (in which she was later joined by Pierre) was based on an initial observation of uranium by Henri Becquerel in which he discovered that materials containing uranium gave off unexplained rays. This was radium, officially discovered by the Curies in 1898. The discovery and beneficial use of this element was to become the focus of their lifetime work. In July 1898 they had announced the discovery of ‘polonium’. For these discoveries Marie and her husband Pierre Curie shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903, with Henri Becquerel.

After Pierre’s death in 1906, Marie received another Nobel Prize in 1911, this time for Chemistry, related to their discoveries of polonium and radium.

The Curies spent their lives working under trying conditions, including gender discrimination for Marie, . Leaving Poland because women were not allowed to enrol in university was only the beginning. Later, Marie’s name was not added to the list of candidates for the Nobel Prize on the same grounds, although that was eventually rectified. Earlier that year, although the Curies were invited to London following the publication of their joint paper, it was only Pierre who was allowed to speak at the Royal Institution, once again for the same reason. France, Marie’s adoptive country, never formally acknowledged her achievements, in spite of her huge contributions.
It was only after she was honoured everywhere else that France rather shamefacedly offered her the Legion of Honour, which Marie refused.

Marie Curie died almost 80 years ago, on July 4, 1934, but she still serves as an inspiration for women scientists everywhere. Even in Pakistan, though we are not famed for treating our scientists with respect, there are several women who take heart from Curie’s experiences.

Dr Mariam Sultana, the first female PhD in Extragalactic Astrophysics from the University of Karachi, is not involved in research, but the fact of obtaining a doctorate in such a subject in Pakistan merits mention.

Sadia Manzoor works with condensed matter physics in Islamabad. Her research interests include applications of magnetic nanostructures in cancer treatment.

Then there are three Pakistani women who work at CERN in Geneva. Dr Shamim is involved in the search for quantum black holes. Dr Malik, after studying physics at Oxford is now at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN, working at research which aims to provide further understanding of the universe. And Dr Jabeen, also a physicist, also with CERN, Geneva, is a research associate at Fermilab, in Chicago.

’That nation will remain the first,’ said Louis Pasteur, ‘which carries furthest the works of thought and intelligence.’

Obviously, we’re not out of the race yet, though we have a long way to go.