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In Our Time

The Curies

In Our Time

BBC

History

4.69.2K Ratings

🗓️ 26 March 2015

⏱️ 47 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Melvyn Bragg and his guests discuss the scientific achievements of the Curie family. In 1903 Marie and Pierre Curie shared a Nobel Prize in Physics with Henri Becquerel for their work on radioactivity, a term which Marie coined. Marie went on to win a Nobel in Chemistry eight years later; remarkably, her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie would later share a Nobel with her husband Frédéric Joliot-Curie for their discovery that it was possible to create radioactive materials in the laboratory. The work of the Curies added immensely to our knowledge of fundamental physics and paved the way for modern treatments for cancer and other illnesses. With: Patricia Fara Senior Tutor of Clare College, University of Cambridge Robert Fox Emeritus Professor of the History of Science at the University of Oxford Steven T Bramwell Professor of Physics and former Professor of Chemistry at University College London Producer: Simon Tillotson.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Thank you for downloading this episode of In Our Time, for more details about In Our Time,

0:04.2

and for our terms of use, please go to bbc.co.uk slash radio4.

0:09.0

I hope you enjoy the program.

0:11.2

Hello, in 1903, thanks to her work on radio activity, Mary Curie became the first woman

0:16.2

to an Annabelle Prize, sharing it with her husband Pierre and with Henry Becker-El.

0:20.7

Mary went on to become the first person to intune Annabelle Prizes, and is still the only

0:24.8

person to Annabelle's for both physics and chemistry.

0:28.9

In the 1930s, the Curie's elder daughter Irene won a further name home prize for the family

0:33.3

and her husband.

0:34.3

She did it with her husband, also for chemistry, for they discovered it was possible to create

0:39.6

radioactive material in the laboratory.

0:42.2

And Mary Curie's extraordinary career also included doing extra or driving extra laborators

0:47.9

around the western front during the First World War.

0:51.4

The work of the Curie is including that discovery of radium added immensely to our knowledge

0:55.1

of fundamental physics and paved the way for modern treatments for cancer.

0:59.2

With me to discuss, principally, Mary Curie, our Patricia Farrer, senior tutor of Clark

1:03.2

College Cambridge, Steven Brownwell, professor of physics at University College London and Robert

1:07.8

Fox, emeritus professor of the history of science at the University of Oxford.

1:12.1

Patricia Farrer, what were the most significant scientific developments towards the end of

1:16.2

the 19th century that it were worked towards what Mary Curie did?

1:20.2

Well, the most immediate developments were the discoveries of X-rays by Rumpkin.

1:24.5

And I think the fact that he called it X-rays indicates the extreme confusion and bewilderment

...

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