
Pierre Curie was a pioneering physicist whose scientific achievements, notably in collaboration with his wife, Marie Sklodowska-Curie, have had a lasting impact on the field of physics. He was born in 1859, having a doctor as his father and a well-educated woman as his mother. He was homeschooled by his father, who introduced him to the world of science. At the age of sixteen he began to study physics at the Sorbonne in Paris, but because of financial difficulties took a job as laboratory assistant, which stood him in good stead in his later scientific career.
Along with his older brother Jacques, Pierre discovered in 1880 the phenomenon of piezoelectricity, meaning that certain crystals could generate an electric charge when subjected to mechanical stress. He then worked on crystallography, describing the behavior of magnetic materials at different temperatures, showing that above a temperature certain magnetic materials ceased being magnetic. In 1895, he began with Marie to investigate the mysterious phenomenon later to be known as radioactivity and first discovered by Henri Becquerel in uranium salts.
In 1898 Pierre and Marie discovered two new elements, polonium and radium, and showed that the radiation emitted by these elements was an intrinsic property of the atom itself, not a chemical reaction. In 1903, Pierre, Marie, and Henri Becquerel were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. Pierre continued to investigate the physical effects of radioactive materials, including their harmful biological effects. Tragically, he was killed in a street accident in Paris in 1906 when he was struck by a horse-drawn carriage.
In the biography written by his widow, he is described as a shy, intense young man, at first an overworked teacher without much experience. He rejected all honorary distinctions on principle and disapproved of everything that would distract him from his research. He was unworldly, a little boyish outside the laboratory, and entirely frank in the expression of his opinions. Inclined to ignore the social obligations that would interfere with his research, he had, however, a well-developed faculty for friendship and was devoid of the severity and arrogance sometimes found in dedicated researchers. His partnership with Marie is one of the most famous scientific collaborations in history and their discoveries have had a massive impact on the history of science.
Further reading
“Pierre Curie. By Marie Curie. Translated by Charlotte Vernon Kellogg. New York: The Macmillan Company.” North American Review Feb 1924;219(819):284-285.
Leave a Reply