Nuclear reactions by Irene and Frederic Joliot Curie. Irene Joliot-Curie biography and interesting facts
French physicist Irène Joliot-Curie was born in Paris. She was the eldest of two daughters of Pierre Curie and Marie Skłodowska-Curie. Marie Curie first received radium when Irene was only one year old. Around the same time, Irene's paternal grandfather, Eugene Curie, came to live with their family. Eugene Curie was a doctor by profession. He volunteered his services to the rebels in the revolution of 1848 and helped the Paris Commune in 1871. Now Eugene Curie kept his granddaughter company while her mother was busy in the laboratory.
His liberal socialist beliefs, as well as his inherent anti-clericalism, had a profound influence on the formation of Irene's political views.
At the age of 10, a year before her father's death, Irene Curie began studying at a cooperative school organized by her mother and several of her colleagues, incl. physicists Paul Langevin and Jean Perrin, who also taught at this school. Two years later she entered Séviné College, graduating on the eve of the First World War. Irene continued her education at the University of Paris (Sorbonne). However, she interrupted her studies for several months because... worked as a nurse in a military hospital, helping her mother take x-rays.
The most significant research she carried out began a few years later, after she married fellow Radium Institute assistant Frédéric Joliot in 1926. In 1930, German physicist Walter Bothe discovered that some light elements (among them beryllium and boron) emit powerful radiation when bombarded with alpha particles.
Interested in the problems that arose from this discovery, the Joliot-Curies (as they called themselves) prepared a particularly powerful source of polonium to produce alpha particles and used a sensitive condensation chamber designed by Joliot to detect the penetrating radiation that was thus generated.
They found that when a plate of hydrogen-containing material was placed between beryllium or boron and the detector, the observed radiation level almost doubled. The Joliot-Curie couple explained the occurrence of this effect by the fact that penetrating radiation knocks out individual hydrogen atoms, giving them enormous speed. Although neither Irene nor Frederick understood the process, their careful measurements paved the way for James Chadwick's 1932 discovery of the neutron, the electrically neutral component of most atomic nuclei.
In 1935, Irène Joliot-Curie and Frédéric Joliot were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry “for their synthesis of new radioactive elements.” In his opening speech on behalf of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, K.V. Palmeier reminded Joliot-Curie of attending a similar ceremony 24 years earlier when her mother received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. “In collaboration with your husband,” said Pahlmeier, “you are continuing this brilliant tradition with dignity.”
A year after receiving the Nobel Prize, Joliot-Curie became a full professor at the Sorbonne, where she lectured beginning in 1932. She also retained her position at the Radium Institute and continued to research radioactivity. At the end of the 30s. Joliot-Curie, working with uranium, made several important discoveries and came close to discovering that when bombarded by neutrons, the uranium atom disintegrates (splits). By repeating the same experiments, the German physicist Otto Hahn and his colleagues Fritz Strassmann and Lise Meitner achieved the splitting of the uranium atom in 1938.
Meanwhile, Joliot-Curie began to pay increasing attention to political activities and in 1936, for four months, she worked as Assistant Secretary of State for Research Affairs in the government of Leon Blum. Despite the German occupation of France in 1940, Joliot-Curie and her husband remained in Paris, where Joliot participated in the Resistance movement. In 1944, the Gestapo became suspicious of his activities, and when he went underground that same year, Joliot-Curie fled to Switzerland with her two children, where they remained until the liberation of France.
A tall, thin woman renowned for her patience and even temperament, Joliot-Curie loved swimming, skiing and hiking in the mountains. In addition to the Nobel Prize, she was awarded honorary degrees from many universities and was a member of many scientific societies. In 1940, she received the Barnard Gold Medal for distinguished scientific achievements, awarded by Columbia University.
Joliot-Curie was a Knight of the French Legion of Honor.
(Joliot-Curie Irene, 1897-1956) - French physicist, progressive public figure, foreign corresponding member. USSR Academy of Sciences (1947), Nobel Prize laureate (1935). Daughter of M. Curie-Skłodowska and P. Curie.
After graduating from the University of Paris in 1920, she worked at the Radium Institute. In 1925 she defended her doctorate and dissertation. Since 1934, head of the laboratory at the Radium Institute and head. Department of the Institute of Natural Sciences of the Sorbonne. Since 1935, director of work at the National Science Foundation; in 1936 she was appointed associate minister of public education for the management of research work in France. During the years of fascist occupation (1940-1944) she actively participated in the Resistance Movement. In 1946-1950 worked at the Commissariat of Atomic Energy under the French government, from where she was expelled for participating in the Peace Movement.
The main research of I. Joliot-Curie is devoted to the problems of nuclear physics. Studying together with her husband F. Joliot-Curie the so-called. beryllium rays discovered in 1930 by W. Bothe and H. Becker, she found in 1931 that the ionizing effect of these rays increases sharply if hydrogen-containing substances are placed in front of the window of the ionization chamber. Based on this discovery by I. Joliot-Curie, Chadwick proved that beryllium rays are streams of then unknown particles - neutrons (see Neutron). The Joliot-Curie couple were the first to experimentally study the phenomenon of annihilation and the process of pair formation - the transformation of a gamma-ray photon into an electron (see) and a positron (see).
They also discovered the phenomenon of artificial radioactivity by irradiating boron, aluminum and magnesium with alpha particles emitted by polonium. For this discovery, I. and F. Joliot-Curie were awarded the Nobel Prize.
I. Joliot-Curie, together with P. Savitch, studied the effect of neutron bombardment on uranium and discovered lanthanum among the radioactive products formed. These works, along with the research of O. Hahn and F. Strassmann, O. R. Frisch and L. Meitner, contributed to the discovery in 1939 of the phenomenon of fission of uranium nuclei, which meant the beginning era of using intranuclear energy.
Essays: Recherches sur les rayons a du polonium, Oscillations de parcours, vitesse d'emission, pouvoir ionisant, Ann. Physique, t. 3, 1925; Selected Works, trans. from French, M., 1957 (jointly, with Joliot-Curie F.).
Bibliography: Baranov V.I. In memory of Irene Joliot-Curie, Vestn. USSR Academy of Sciences, no. 5, p. 58, 1956; Ioffe A.F. Irene Curie and Frederic Joliot, Izv. USSR Academy of Sciences, ser. Chem., No. 4, p. 601, 1936; Kedrov F.B. Irene and Frederic Joliot-Curie, M., 1975.
A. I. Ishmukhametov.
Irene Joliot-Curie is a world-famous physicist, Nobel Prize laureate, daughter of scientists Pierre and Marie Curie. The woman’s main colleague was her husband, Frederic Joliot. Today we will get acquainted with the biography of Irene Joliot-Curie, photos and interesting facts from her life.
a brief description of
As the daughter of Nobel Prize-winning scientists, Irene Curie was surrounded by academia from childhood, which shaped her love of physics. Having started her career as a junior researcher at the Paris Radium Institute, which was founded by Curie's parents, she soon became its scientific director. Here the girl met Frederic Joliot, who became her husband and main employee. They made many discoveries together, including the one that led Irene Joliot-Curie to the Nobel Prize.
Childhood
The future Nobel Prize laureate Irène Joliot-Curie (before the wedding simply Curie) was born in Paris on September 12, 1897. The girl grew up among the best minds in France. Her parents devoted their lives to physics, or more precisely, to the issue of radioactivity. When Irene was a few months old, her mother was on the verge of discovering radium. The girl developed very rapidly, but was shy. She was jealous of her mother’s work and got angry when she spent hours enthusiastically carrying out her experiments. After a hard day at work, Irene forced her mother to go to the market and buy her something.
When Pierre Curie died in 1906, his father Eugene Curie began to have a great influence on the girl’s upbringing. He introduced Irene to botany and natural history. The elder Curie was an atheist and political radical. Obviously, it was he who shaped Irene Curie’s “leftist” sentiments and contempt for religion.
Education
The girl's education was not entirely ordinary. Her mother carefully ensured that Irene and Eva-Denise (her younger sister) developed physically and mentally. Dissatisfied with classical education, Marie Curie organized her own educational cooperative, whose teachers were famous French professors and herself. Maria taught physics, and she entrusted such sciences as mathematics, chemistry, sculpture and languages to colleagues from the Sorbonne in Paris. At the age of 10, the future French legend began studying at a cooperative school. She soon became one of the best students, repeatedly demonstrating excellent knowledge in the fields of physics and chemistry.
Two years later, the girl entered college in Sevin. She graduated from it before the First World War. The girl spent her summers in the mountains or on the beach, often with famous people, such as Albert Einstein and his son. The girl continued her studies at the University of Paris.
Front work
With the outbreak of war, Marie Curie went to the front, where, with the help of new X-ray equipment, she greatly facilitated the process of diagnosing and treating soldiers. The eldest daughter enthusiastically helped her mother. Soon Irene began working independently. Being shy and even antisocial by nature, the girl treated danger with complete calm.
First steps in science
When the war ended, 21-year-old Irene Curie began working as a research assistant at the radium institute headed by her mother. Here the girl learned how to skillfully work with a cloud chamber - a device that allows you to examine elementary particles due to the trail of water droplets that remains along the trajectory of their movement. Irene's first scientific experiments were devoted to the study of radioactive polonium, an element discovered earlier by the Curies.
Since the phenomenon of radiation was directly related to the splitting of the atom, by studying it, scientists hoped to shed light on the structure of the atom. Irene Curie studied the fluctuations observed during the decay of alpha particles, which are ejected at high speed during the decay of polonium atoms. In 1925, Irene Curie received her doctorate for her success in studying these particles.
Marriage and collaboration with Frédéric Joliot
In 1926, Curie married Frederic Joliot, who worked as an assistant at the Radium Institute. That same year, the most significant research she had ever undertaken began. In 1930, Walter Bohr discovered that a number of light elements, including boron and beryllium, emit strong radiation when attacked by alpha particles. Irene Joliot-Curie, whose photo is presented in the review, and her husband became interested in the problems arising from this discovery. They prepared a powerful source of polonium and used a sensitive condensation chamber designed by Frédéric Joliot to capture the penetrating radiation generated by this reaction. So the couple discovered that at the moment when a hydrogen-containing plate is placed between the substance under study (boron or beryllium) and the detector, the radiation level almost doubles.
The occurrence of this effect was explained by Irene and Frederic Joliot-Curie by the fact that penetrating radiation at the moment of the reaction knocks out hydrogen atoms, thereby giving them significant acceleration. Although the couple could not explain the nature of the process, the careful measurements they made became the foundation for Mr. Chadwick's discovery in 1932 of the neuron, that is, the electrically neutral part of the bulk of atomic nuclei.
Nuclear fusion
Continuing to actively engage in research, the Joliot-Curie couple approached the most significant discovery of their careers. By attacking boron and aluminum with alpha particles, scientists studied the yield of positrons, first discovered in 1932 by the American scientist Anderson. Positrons are particles with a positive charge that are in all other respects similar to electrons that are negatively charged.
By placing a thin layer of aluminum foil over the detector opening, the couple were able to irradiate samples of aluminum and boron with alpha particles. They were very surprised when they noticed that after removing the polonium source of alpha particles, the release of positrons continued for several minutes. Developing this topic, the couple came to the conclusion that particles of boron and aluminum in the samples under study turned into other chemical elements. In addition, these same elements were radioactive. With the absorption of 2 protons and 2 neurons of alpha particles, aluminum became radioactive phosphorus, and boron became a radioactive isotope of nitrogen. Using this method, the Joliot-Curie couple were able to obtain many new elements in a short time.
Nobel Prize
In 1934, the Joliot-Curies, who had always professed anti-fascist and anti-capitalist views, became members of the French Socialist Party, and subsequently joined the ranks of the Communists.
In 1935 they received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their synthesis of new elements. K. W. Palmeier, who gave the opening speech at the award ceremony from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, recalled how, 24 years ago, at a similar ceremony, Irene contemplated her mother receiving the Nobel Prize. Palmeier noted that Irene, in collaboration with her husband, worthily continues the brilliant family tradition.
Uranium fission
A year after receiving the prize, the woman became a professor at the University of Paris, where she began lecturing back in 1932. In parallel, she continued to study radioactivity at the Radium Institute, where she retained her position. In the late 1940s, Joliot-Curie made a number of important discoveries while studying uranium and came to the conclusion that when attacked by neurons, the uranium atom splits (disintegrates). By repeating these experiments, Otto Hahn, together with his colleagues Fritz Strassman and Lise Meitner, were able to achieve the splitting of the uranium atom.
The Second World War
Gradually, Irene Joliot-Curie began to pay more and more attention to politics. In 1936, she worked for four months in the government of Leon Blum as Assistant Secretary of State for Research Affairs. Despite the fact that Germany occupied France in 1940, the Joliot-Curies remained in Paris. Frédéric Joliot became a member of the Resistance. In 1944, the Gestapo began to monitor the scientist, and he had to hide underground. His wife and two children were forced to flee to Switzerland. They stayed there until the liberation of France from the invaders.
Further events
In 1946, Irene replaced her mother as director of the radium institute. In the same year, she began working at the French Atomic Energy Commission, where she stayed for 4 years. Concerned with the intellectual and social progress of the fairer sex, Irene was a member of the National Committee of the Union of French Women and the World Peace Council. Together with her husband, she advocated the peaceful use of nuclear energy. During this period, Joliot-Curie visited the Soviet Union several times. At that time, it was just the height of the Cold War, and for her political activities, Joliot-Curie was denied membership in the Chemical Society of the United States.
Last years
The last thing that Irene Joliot-Curie, whose biography was the topic of our review, did for science was her participation in 1955 in the creation of a large particle accelerator in a laboratory in the town of Orsay, located south of Paris. In the mid-60s, Irene’s health deteriorated greatly due to radiation, the total dose of which over many years of work exceeded all norms. Like her mother, the woman fell ill with blood cancer. On March 17, 1956, she died from this disease. On March 21, she was buried in a suburb of Paris.
Finally, it is worth noting that the Nobel Prize was the main, but not the only award of Irene Joliot-Curie, whose brief biography we reviewed. During her work at many universities, she was awarded honorary degrees and was a member of many scientific societies. In 1940, she received the Barnard Gold Medal from Columbia University for her outstanding service. Irene was also a Knight of the French Legion of Honor.
Irène Joliot-Curie's younger sister, Eva Denise Curie, became a famous French and American pianist, writer, journalist, music critic and public figure. In 1937, she published a biographical sketch of the life of Marie Curie, for which she was awarded the American Literary Award. In 1952, Eva Denise became an adviser to the NATO Secretary General. In 1954, she married Henry Richardson Laboise, who in 1965 received the Nobel Peace Prize awarded to the United Nations Children's Fund for strengthening brotherhood among nations. Thus, sister Irene Joliot-Curie, although remotely, is also involved in the Nobel Prize.
I promised some friends to translate an article about the novel between Marie Curie and the physicist Langevin. I keep my promise. Here is the entire article. I'm interested in your opinion. In my opinion, if anyone behaved like an asshole in this story, it was Langevin, eh? Just in case: this is from the series “what I bought for, I sell for.” I don’t know if everything was really as described here; I was never specifically interested in it. This is simply a translation of an article from a Polish magazine, close to the text.
Skłodowska-Curie and Langevin. Sex scandal of the beginning of the last century.
“Husband stealer! Minx! - this is what newspapers throughout Europe wrote about Marie Skłodowska-Curie. All due to an extremely unsuccessful romance.
It was April 19, 1906. On a cold, rainy day, Pierre Curie walked out onto a busy street. Lost in thought, having suffered from problems with balance since childhood, he fell directly under the wheels of the carriage and died on the spot. His wife, Marie Sklodowska-Curie, with whom the French physicist lived for 11 years of his life, could not recover for a long time after his death. Just recently, in a letter to her sister Bronislava, she wrote about her family: “I have the best husband you can dream of, and I didn’t even think that I could find someone like him, this is true fate, won in the lottery, and the longer we live together, the more we better with each other." Pierre cherished his beloved from the first minute of their acquaintance: “Nothing could give me greater joy than news from you. The prospect of not hearing from you for two months was unbearable for me. I want to say that even little news is better than the unknown.” After barely a few months of dating, he asked for her hand in marriage. After the death of her husband, Maria isolated herself within four walls. If she occasionally appeared somewhere, it was only in mourning attire.
In her memoirs, she wrote: “Shattered by fate, I was not able to plan my future, but I could not forget that my husband used to say that even if he were gone, I was obliged to continue my work.”
Seven months later, instead of her husband, she accepts his position in the Department of Exact Sciences of the Sorbonne to teach a physics course there. She becomes the first woman to teach at this university. Mary's greatest love - science - gradually allows her to cope with life's tragedy.
Three years later, another misfortune befell her. Maria's father-in-law dies. With his death, she loses her supportive friend, and her children lose their beloved grandfather. The woman aged several decades in just a few minutes. She practically can't eat. He lives only by work and his responsibilities. The subsequent stresses greatly affected her health.
New impulse
However, the situation began to change when Paul Langevin burst into her life. Although their paths had already crossed several times: a student of Pierre Curie, his successor at the School of Physics and Chemistry and a long-time friend of the Curies, they only now turned the life of a 43-year-old woman upside down. Friends of the Nobel laureate are happy to celebrate the revolution that took place in Maria. The mourning wardrobe is replaced by white, elegant dresses. Her eyes sparkle with a dangerous gleam, and she allows herself to smile more and more often.
The affair with a tall, handsome, intelligent physics professor - five years younger than her - lasted in secret for about six months. The loving couple met in a rented apartment, and when they couldn’t see each other, they sent each other passionate letters. “I tremble with anticipation at the thought of seeing you again and also telling you how much I have missed you. I kiss you tenderly in anticipation of tomorrow...” Paul wrote in one of them. “Make sure no one is following you when you come to me,” the man received a reply letter.
Enchanted by Maria, Paul quickly forgot about his wife Jeanne and his four children. However, as he himself stated, his wife, who came from a working-class family and, together with her mother, ran a colonial goods store, was not able to understand his scientific work. She also had fits of rage, which gradually drove him to stomach problems and eventually to a nervous breakdown. In their house, there were often quarrels and assaults. Jeanne insulted him at every opportunity. However, he was not innocent either.
His wife accused him of putting science and his work above their family life. In her opinion, he brought home too little money. He was also repeatedly confused with other women. Maria and Paul were now connected not only by feelings for physics, but also by joint social activities. He founded the Rationalist Union, which still exists today, whose chairman today is Skłodowska-Curie’s granddaughter, Hélène Langevin-Joliot. Maria was involved in charity work and the fight for women's equality.
Their happiness, however, did not last long. Langevin's wife set a condition for the lovers. She demanded that the couple stop contacting each other, not only on a personal level, but also on a professional one. If her request was not fulfilled, she threatened to publish the couple’s love letters. Maria passionately persuaded Paul to leave his wife. These letters clearly showed that the union of Mary and Paul was not an ordinary fleeting physical infatuation. Maria had serious plans for her lover and wanted him to marry her soon. Meanwhile, Paul has not yet written off his family. His wife gave birth to their fourth child shortly before he became involved with Skłodowska-Curie.
Jeanne Langevin obtained piquant correspondence with the help of a thief she hired, and when she met Maria on the street, she told her to get out of the country and threatened her with scandal, and even death.
In 1910, the International Congress of Radiology and Electricity was held in Brussels, to which both lovers were invited. Curie was the only woman there, and among the guests were such personalities as Albert Einstein, Max Planck and Jean Perrin. When Paul's wife found out that her husband was attending this conference with Maria, she decided to carry out her threat. The incriminating documents were released that same day, despite the fact that Marie and Paul did not actually arrive in Brussels together. For Jeanne Langevin, however, the situation was clear. The agreement that all three had made was broken.
Hot congress of radiologists.
During Maria's stay in Brussels, journalists gave her no rest. The newspapers published an interview with Langevin's wife, who talked about her husband's affair with a Polish scientist, as well as a conversation with Langevin's mother-in-law, who talked about love letters. The tabloid press did not leave a dry thread on Maria. It was she who was blamed for the breakup of the family.
“The radium rays that secretly shine on everything around him gave us a surprise. They fanned the fire in the hearts of scientists who persistently study their properties; and meanwhile the scientist’s wife and children are drowning in tears…” wrote one of the largest Parisian daily journals, “Le Journal”.
Everything that the press wrote more than a hundred years ago lives to this day. When an article appeared in the press in which Langevin’s mother-in-law said that she had no information about the whereabouts of her lovers, Maria sent an open letter to the editor of the newspaper “Le Temps” - commenting on the content of this conversation. She said that everyone knew perfectly well where she was. She also spoke negatively about gossip about her alleged escape. Scientists present at the Brussels conference also became familiar with the sensational revelations of Skłodowska-Curie, but did not believe them. They believed that Maria’s acquaintance with Paul was purely of a working nature, and in addition, most had heard about the Langevins’ family problems.
The open letter did not end the battles. On the contrary, they entered a new phase, in which not only sharp feathers were used. Langevin challenged the editor-in-chief of the newspaper "L" Oeuvre, Gustav Théry, to a pistol duel, but in the end not a single shot was fired. Teri pointed his gun at the ground at the last minute. Paul immediately confirmed that he was not a murderer and also put down his weapon.
The editor of “Gil Blas” had a sword fight with a journalist from “LAction Française”, after which Teri challenged the second editor of “Gil Blas” to a duel. An open letter appeared in L'Intransigeant, the author of which was Langevin himself. Maria wrote another letter to “Le Temps”, threatening that she would sue anyone who dared to publish love letters. In the end, she took her daughters and fled from her home to friends in Paris. She could no longer stand the constant heated crowds outside her doors "Get out of here, foreigner!" - they chanted and threw stones at the windows of her house.
“There is nothing in life to be afraid of. There is only what needs to be understood,” she said.
Maria's family and Einstein
Curie, however, could always count on the support of her loved ones. Swedish feminists, as well as great scientists from around the world, also extended their hand to her. “I was so angry at the way every rabble is trying to attack you that I recklessly had to give vent to my feelings... I would like to tell you that I am incredibly admired by your tenacity, energy and decency. It is wonderful that among us there are people like you, like Langevin, the true salt of humanity, among whom one can feel joy in a comradely way. If the rabble continues to attack you, I ask you to simply stop reading this nonsense,” Albert Einstein himself wrote to her.
The scientist did not spare compliments addressed to her. A little later he wrote: “Several weeks have passed since those wonderful events and in my little gray closet I am still experiencing delightful memories. I feel deeply grateful to you and your friends for allowing me to be a part of your lives. I can’t imagine anything more inspiring than the sight of people living in such harmony with each other. Everything in your house seemed so natural to me, like the facets of different parts of a beautiful work of art, and although my acquaintance with the French language is barely elementary, I never had the feeling that I was some kind of stranger among you. I thank you warmly for your time and beg your forgiveness if you were shocked by my uncouth manners."
Swedish twists and turns
When Curie was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911, details of her personal life had been discussed for a long time. This did not help her good name. When news of Sklodowska-Curie’s affair with a married man reached Sweden, the secretary of the Royal Academy of Sciences there, not wanting such a solemn occasion as the presentation of the Nobel Prize to turn into a scandal, turned to the woman with a request that she not appear in Sweden: “Everything my colleagues replied that they did not want you to come here. I also ask that you remain in France; because no one can predict what might happen during the award ceremony. Honor and respect for our Academy, as well as for Science itself and your homeland, dictate that in these circumstances you discard the thought of coming here to receive an award.”
The researcher, however, did not listen to the words of the Swedish scientist. She informed him that she had no intention of giving up personally accepting the Nobel Prize: “I must act in accordance with my convictions. The action you recommend to me seems wrong to me. I think that there is absolutely no connection between my scientific work and the facts from my personal life, which were presented incorrectly and do not deserve the attention of respected people. I am very offended that you do not share my opinion.” Maria went to Stockholm and calmly received the award there. Nothing happened that was feared, and after the speech the scientist was rewarded with loud applause. She also received support from the Swedish Association of Scientific Women, who organized a banquet especially in her honor. Nevertheless, the media continued to eagerly describe her love victories.
Sad end of the novel
Paul, meanwhile, received consent to divorce his wife. Ten days after Maria received the most important scientific award, her lover could finally begin to think about his freedom. Despite this, he decided to finish the novel. Langevin and Sklodowska continued to communicate and talked regularly, but only about scientific matters. Paul dutifully returned to his wife. However, the problems of the Langevin spouses did not end there. A little time passed, and the man found himself a new lover - a student from Sèvres, Eliane Montel. The fruit of this union was Langevin's fifth child, Paul's son Gilbert. Maria never had any more novels. She devoted the rest of her life to the Institute of Radiology, which she considered a monument in honor of Pierre Curie.
And although Skłodowska-Curie and Langevin never returned to each other, history has come full circle. Maria's granddaughter, Hélène Joliot, was inflamed with feelings for Paul's grandson, Michel. Both became physicists, and confirmed their love by marriage. Years later, the life of Skłodowska-Curie was shrouded in romantic legend. In everything she was the best, the first, the only. Strict, almost saintly. Her husband Pierre called her a woman of genius. The daughter did not find any faults in her. Meanwhile, Mary is far from the iconostasis. And she had her weaknesses. Attracted men. Einstein himself said about her that he had never seen so much eroticism in the eyes of any other woman.
At the age of 10, a year before her father's death, Irene K. began studying at a cooperative school organized by her mother and several of her colleagues, incl. physicists Paul Langevin and Jean Perrin, who also taught at this school. Two years later she entered Séviné College, graduating on the eve of the First World War. Irene continued her education at the University of Paris (Sorbonne). However, she interrupted her studies for several months because... worked as a nurse in a military hospital, helping her mother take x-rays.
After the end of the war, Irene K. began working as a research assistant at the Radium Institute, which was headed by her mother, and in 1921 she began conducting independent research. Her first experiments were related to the study of radioactive polonium, an element discovered by her parents more than 20 years earlier. Since the phenomenon of radiation was associated with the splitting of the atom, its study offered hope of shedding light on the structure of the atom. Irene K. studied the fluctuation observed in a number of alpha particles ejected, usually at extremely high speeds, during the decay of polonium atoms. Alpha particles, which consist of 2 protons and 2 neutrons and, therefore, are helium nuclei, were first pointed out by the English physicist Ernest Rutherford as a material for studying atomic structure. In 1925, Irene K. was awarded a doctorate for her research on these particles.
The most significant research she carried out began a few years later, after she married fellow Radium Institute assistant Frédéric Joliot in 1926. In 1930, German physicist Walter Bothe discovered that some light elements (among them beryllium and boron) emit powerful radiation when bombarded with alpha particles. Interested in the problems that arose from this discovery, the Joliot-Curies (as they called themselves) prepared a particularly powerful source of polonium to produce alpha particles and used a sensitive condensation chamber designed by Joliot to detect the penetrating radiation that was thus generated.
They found that when a plate of hydrogen-containing material was placed between beryllium or boron and the detector, the observed radiation level almost doubled. The Joliot-Curie couple explained the occurrence of this effect by the fact that penetrating radiation knocks out individual hydrogen atoms, giving them enormous speed. Although neither Irene nor Frederick understood the process, their careful measurements paved the way for James Chadwick's 1932 discovery of the neutron, the electrically neutral component of most atomic nuclei.
Continuing their research, the Joliot-Curie couple came to their most significant discovery. By bombarding boron and aluminum with alpha particles, they studied the yield of positrons (positively charged particles that otherwise resemble negatively charged electrons), first discovered in 1932 by American physicist Carl D. Anderson. By covering the detector hole with a thin layer of aluminum foil, they irradiated samples of aluminum and boron with alpha particles. To their surprise, the positron output continued for several minutes after the polonium source of alpha particles was removed. Later, the Joliot-Curies became convinced that some of the aluminum and boron in the analyzed samples had turned into new chemical elements. Moreover, these new elements were radioactive: by absorbing 2 protons and 2 neutrons from alpha particles, aluminum became radioactive phosphorus, and boron became a radioactive isotope of nitrogen. Within a short time, Joliot-Curie obtained many new radioactive elements.
In 1935, Irene J.-C. and Frédéric Joliot were jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry "for their synthesis of new radioactive elements." In his opening speech on behalf of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, K.V. Palmeier recalled J.-C. about how she attended a similar ceremony 24 years ago when her mother received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. “In collaboration with your husband,” said Pahlmeier, “you are continuing this brilliant tradition with dignity.”
A year after receiving the Nobel Prize, J.-C. became a full professor at the Sorbonne, where she lectured beginning in 1932. She also retained her position at the Radium Institute and continued to research radioactivity. At the end of the 30s. J.-K., working with uranium, made several important discoveries and came close to discovering that when bombarded by neutrons, the uranium atom disintegrates (splits). By repeating the same experiments, the German physicist Otto Hahn and his colleagues Fritz Strassmann and Lise Meitner achieved the splitting of the uranium atom in 1938.
Meanwhile, J.-C. began to pay increasing attention to political activities and in 1936, for four months, she worked as Assistant Secretary of State for Research Affairs in the government of Leon Blum. Despite the German occupation of France in 1940, J.-C. and her husband remained in Paris, where Joliot participated in the Resistance movement. In 1944, the Gestapo became suspicious of his activities, and when he went underground that same year, J.-C. she fled with two children to Switzerland, where they remained until the liberation of France.
Best of the day
In 1946 J.-C. was appointed director of the Radium Institute. In addition, from 1946 to 1950 she worked at the French Atomic Energy Commissariat. Always deeply concerned with the social and intellectual progress of women, she was a member of the National Committee of the Union of French Women and served on the World Peace Council. By the beginning of the 50s. her health began to deteriorate, probably as a result of the dose of radioactivity she received. J.-C. died in Paris on March 17, 1956 from acute leukemia.
A tall, thin woman, famous for her patience and even character, J.-C. She loved to swim, ski and take walks in the mountains. In addition to the Nobel Prize, she was awarded honorary degrees from many universities and was a member of many scientific societies. In 1940, she received the Barnard Gold Medal for distinguished scientific achievements, awarded by Columbia University. J.-C. She was a Knight of the French Legion of Honor.