Marie Curie
Few physicists throughout history, male or female, can match up to the greatness of Marie Curie. Besides her revolutionary, pioneering research into radiation, she also discovered the pathways to technologies such as chemotherapy and nuclear weaponry. If that wasn’t enough, she was the first person honored with two Nobel Prizes - at a time when women were not taken seriously in the scientific field.
Maria Sklodowska was born on November 7th, 1867 in Warsaw, Poland. Her family had been involved with acts of Polish patriotism during a time where the Russians controlled the area, and the family had thus lost all of their wealth and property. As a young woman she studied at the clandestine Floating University, and acted as a tutor to Polish women in factories.
Once she had moved to Paris to study physics, she met Pierre Curie. The two fell in love, and were married - creating arguably the greatest scientific partnership of all time. She worked towards earning her Ph.D by studying radioactive materials, a recent discovery by Henri Becquerel. At this time, the couple was effectively broke - and both worked as full-time teachers. They worked in a slipshod, homemade laboratory that they built in an old shed. Although they couldn’t afford assistants, proper supplies or even food at times - the couple still made outstanding discoveries. The couple discovered two new elements, Radium and Polonium. Marie, during this time, coined the term ‘radioactivity,’ and was so selfless that she didn’t patent her ideas. She didn’t want other scientists to deal with copyright issues, so the left her discoveries in the public domain, an uncommon act at the time.
In 1903, Marie Curie cleaned up - earning both her Ph.D and the Nobel Prize. She became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, and once she was awarded the Nobel in Chemistry in 1911 she became the first person, regardless of gender, to win two Nobels in two different fields. To this very day, Madame Curie remains the only person to win the Prize in two different sciences. Later, in 1935 - her daughter Irene would win the Prize as well.
In 1906, tragedy struck Marie when Pierre died from a horse-drawn carriage accident. Marie took over his chair at the Sarbonne Academy in Paris, thus becoming its first female professor. When World War I broke up, she donated her gold Nobel Prizes to be melted down to support the war effort, and hopped in a mobile radiation therapy truck. She used gamma rays to help alleviate the pain of wounded soldiers, thus essentially beginning the process of chemotherapy.
After the war, Curie realized that working with nuclear materials was hazardous to her health, but at this point she wasn’t phased by the discovery. In fact, the Curie (Ci) has become the standard unit of radiation. She warned others against working with gamma rays without appropriate precautions, but she continued her own research. Marie Curie died on the 4th of July, 1934 - she was 66.
(via eatgeekstudy)
Why have I kept silent, held back so long,
on something openly practiced in
war games, at the end of which those of us
who survive will at best be footnotes?
It’s the alleged right to a first strike
that could destroy an Iranian people
subjugated by a loudmouth
and gathered in organized rallies,
because an atom bomb may be being
developed within his arc of power.
Yet why do I hesitate to name
that other land in which
for years—although kept secret—
a growing nuclear power has existed
beyond supervision or verification,
subject to no inspection of any kind?
This general silence on the facts,
before which my own silence has bowed,
seems to me a troubling lie, and compels
me toward a likely punishment
the moment it’s flouted:
the verdict “Anti-semitism” falls easily.
But now that my own country,
brought in time after time
for questioning about its own crimes,
profound and beyond compare,
is said to be the departure point,
(on what is merely business,
though easily declared an act of reparation)
for yet another submarine equipped
to transport nuclear warheads
to Israel, where not a single atom bomb
has yet been proved to exist, with fear alone
the only evidence, I’ll say what must be said.
But why have I kept silent till now?
Because I thought my own origins,
Tarnished by a stain that can never be removed,
meant I could not expect Israel, a land
to which I am, and always will be, attached,
to accept this open declaration of the truth.
Why only now, grown old,
and with what ink remains, do I say:
Israel’s atomic power endangers
an already fragile world peace?
Because what must be said
may be too late tomorrow;
and because—burdend enough as Germans—
we may be providing material for a crime
that is foreseeable, so that our complicity
wil not be expunged by any
of the usual excuses.
And granted: I’ve broken my silence
because I’m sick of the West’s hypocrisy;
and I hope too that many may be freed
from their silence, may demand
that those responsible for the open danger
we face renounce the use of force,
may insist that the governments of
both Iran and Israel allow an international authority
free and open inspection of
the nuclear potential and capability of both.
No other course offers help
to Israelis and Palestinians alike,
to all those living side by side in emnity
in this region occupied by illusions,
and ultimately, to all of us.
Answer:
God, in what form? If, you mean the God of Abraham, then no. Nor do I believe in the god of Spinoza or a deistic god. However, I am not, strictly speaking, an Atheist. When asked about my religious stance in person, I will say I am an Atheist for the sake of brevity; I am both a Humanist and an Anti-dogmatic Zen Buddhist. Humanism applies towards my interpersonal life, Zen Buddhism my intrapersonal life.
