Marie Curie; The Unesco courier: a window ... - unesdoc - Unesco

THE DREAMER IN WARSAW (Continued)
Maria's interest in mathematics
started just at the time when she met
him. She was always very capable
and had a good memory. But I believe
her friendship with Karol showed her
the first vista of the beauty of mathe¬
matics.
If one once understands Mathematics
and Physics, one becomes their slave
and lover for the rest of one's life
as did Maria Sklodowska.
When she returned to Warsaw she
worked for some time in the Museum
of Industry and Agriculture. There,
under the guidance of her relative
Joseph
Boguski, who later became a
professor at the Warsaw Polytechnic,
the young girl enjoyed her first ex¬
periments in physics and chemistry.
Because of the disappointment of
her first love, because of her awakened
interest in
Science and because Rus¬
sian universities were closed to women,
Maria decided to go to Paris in 1891
and to study there.
She intended to
return to Poland as a qualified teacher
in mathematics and physics.
Although
fate interfered with her plans, she
was always in close touch with her
family and with her country, which
she visited many times.
Jan Danysz, one of the Polish stu¬
dents recommended by Maria, was
killed a few years later in the Battle
of Verdun. His son is now a distin¬
guished physicist in Warsaw, and is
the co-discoverer, with Jerzy Pniewski,
oí the fundamental particles known as
hyperons.
The laboratory was directed by Pro¬
fessor Wertenstein, undoubtedly the
most distinguished but officially the
least recognized experimental physicist
in Poland of the generation between
the world wars. It had little or no
State support, though in 1921 it rec¬
eived an important grant from Maria.
Yet, because of its scientific work and
because of the schooling it gave to a
few young scientists, it became known
throughout the world as the only
laboratory in which studies on nuclear
physics were kept alive in Poland.
When, after the First World War, a
free Poland was created, Maria dream¬
ed of building a big institute in
Warsaw devoted to research on radium
and its power for healing. But the
new-born country spent vast sums on
its military preparations and it was
left to a specially organized society to
collect money and to present the
Institute as "a national gift" to Maria
Sklodowska Curie.
This photo, taken near
Geneva on a misty day in
1925, records a meeting
between two great scientists
Marie Curie and
Albert
Einste'n during a break
between meetings at the
League of Nations. In 1922
the Council of the League
of Nations unanimously
named Marie Curie as a
member of the Committee on
Intellectual Co-operation.
In this committee she worked
ardently to promote the
development of science
devoted to the service of
man (see text page 16).
THE
WOM
11
IN May 1912, after the
death of her husband, and after the
Curies had received the Nobel Prize,
à Polish delegation was sent to Paris.
Among its members was the famous
writer Henryk Sienkiewicz, author of
"Ouo Vadis", who urged Maria to re¬
turn to Warsaw to continue her scientifio
work there.
Maria's daughter writes that it was
a difficult decision for her to take.
But I find this hard to believe.
Warsaw was then a
desert as far as
experimental physics was concerned,
and no experimental scientist can work
in a desert. She promised, however, to
direct from afar the new laboratory
that was planned and she recommen¬
ded for posts on its staff her two most
talented Polish students, Jan Danysz
and Ludwik Wertenstein.
The laboratory was opened in August
1913. Money had been provided by
an industrialist who wished the labora¬
tory to be named after his son, a pupil
of Maria's in
Paris, who had died as
a young man. So the laboratory,
named for Dr. Kernbaum, was created,
and for its inauguration Maria visited
Poland and gave a lecture in Polish.
The history of this laboratory,
belonging to the " Learned Society of
Warsaw", and the role it played in the
scientific development of Poland
deserve a few words.
In 1925 Maria came to Warsaw to
lay the corner-stone for the laboratory
building, and in 1932, when the hospital
at the Institute was finished, Maria
again came to Warsaw to present the
Institute with a gramme or radium
which she had received in the U.S.A
Two years later Maria died, and
seven years later night fell on Europe.
Science is an international venture.
There is no English, French or Polish
Science. But there are contributions
of each country to the development of
science, usually commemorated by
the names of the men responsible for
each gigantic step forward.
On its way science smashes old
dogmas, looking for new truths. The
dogma of the Moving Sun was demo¬
lished by the work of Copernicus,
Gallileo, Kepler, Newton, Laplace,
Einstein. It would be idle to ask who
was the greatest. But the first of them
was Copernicus.
The dogma that the atom is the
indivisable, smallest part of matter was
smashed by Pierre and Marie Curie,
by Irène and Frederic Jolliot-Curie, by
Sir Ernest Rutherford, Niels Bohr, and
a hundred others who came after
them. But the first were Pierre and
Marie Curie.
Poland can be justly proud to have
given to the world Copernicus and
Maria Sklodowska Curie.
by Marguerite Perey
Marguerite Perey, the distinguished
French woman scientist, was a re¬
search student of Marie Curie's and
later collaborated with
her for some
years. Here she recalls the feelings
which Marie Curie inspired in all who
worked closely with her, and acknow¬
ledges the debt which her own career
in science owes to her illustrious
teacher. Five years after the death
of her "patronne", Marguerite Perey
herself discovered a new radioactive
substance, francium. Today she is
professor in the Faculty of Science at
the University of Strasbourg, where
she directs the nuclear research
centre (nuclear chemistry).
I N June 1929, as a shy
young student not yet
twenty, I had to face an interview
with Madame Curie, who had asked
the Chemistry School to choose a
new graduate to work with her.
I was shown into a cheerless little
waiting-room, where I was quietly
joined by a lady in black, very pale
and frail-looking, with a chignon of
curly grey hair and thick spectacles.
I at first took her for a secretary, but