Colorful - the story of hard work - the story of Madame Curie

Cancer, this monster that devours people's lives, has been running unruly in the long river of human history, like a war. Criminals leave people suffering and death. People are looking for weapons to fight against it all the time. However, century after century passed until the beginning of the 20th century, when the great Polish scientist Marie Sklodowska and her husband Pierre Curie discovered a new radioactive element. --radium. It can destroy cells that have been damaged by viruses and then form new, healthy cell tissues. In this way, radium has become a powerful weapon in the treatment of cancer.

Friend, if you have been suffering from an illness for a long time, or even faced the danger of death, and you recovered thanks to radium radioactive treatment, you can thank Madame Curie, then you should take practical actions to Learn from her selfless spirit and unyielding fighting spirit; if you are a warrior in white and are determined to conquer the stubborn fortress of cancer, then you will get great inspiration and lessons from tracing the path that Madame Curie took throughout her life; If you are a scientific and technological worker who is determined to dedicate everything you have to realizing the four modernizations by the end of this century, then from Mrs. Curie, you will see how those who aspire to climb to the top of science should fight. And life...

The Supreme Principle

Poland in 1877 was still a country riddled with holes and fragmented. It was occupied by Tsarist Russia, Austria and Prussia. Little Mary, who was born under oppression and grew up under the iron heel, is puzzled by everything happening in the world: Why are Polish children not allowed to learn Polish? Why are Polish children not allowed to read Polish books? Why do Polish children study under the supervision of Russian censors? On the way home from school, Mary asked her little friend: "What does the Tsar want from us in Poland? Isn't he rich enough? His country is so big." The teacher knows the hearts of the children best. When the Tsarist Russian inspector was away, he secretly taught the history of the Polish nation's resistance to the invaders; secretly taught Polish culture and language; and secretly cultivated children's love for the motherland. When little Mary returned home, her father and brother secretly told her: "Oppression breeds resistance" and "Knowledge is power", which aroused her strong desire to pursue knowledge and improve academic performance. From then on, little Mary's heart was filled with feelings of love for her motherland and hatred of the invaders. Although she was only ten years old and did not know how to resist the invaders, her unyielding character was burning in her young heart; the idea of ??studying for the liberation of the motherland was tumbling in her mind.

Because of her hard work and excellent grades, Mary successfully progressed from elementary school to middle school, and graduated from middle school with a gold medal. How much she wants to continue her studies and further her studies! However, Poland, with its colonial yoke and feudal shackles, does not admit female students to universities. She dreams of going to Paris to study physics and chemistry. However, the poor Sklodovsky family could not even maintain their livelihood, so how could they afford to study abroad? What's more, it has been three years since her sister graduated from high school, and her dream plan to study medicine in Paris has come to nothing every time. The strong desire for knowledge did not make the sisters feel discouraged, but they pushed forward more tenaciously towards their set goals. Mary and her sister worked as tutors respectively, saving bit by bit to pay for their studies in Paris.

One spring morning, Mary pleasantly told her sister that she had come up with a good way to study in Paris: "That's it, you can bring all the money we have saved. Go to Paris, I will stay here as a tutor, and send you all the money I earn. When you become a doctor, you will try to take me to Paris to study physics and chemistry. "What a sacrifice, what a blessing. What a way! Mary's words brought her sister to tears of gratitude. After this, Mary became even more frugal, sending the money she earned to her sister in Paris on a monthly basis. She would rather be so poor that she didn't even have pocket money, and couldn't even afford stamps to write letters. A poor life cannot affect Mary's enthusiasm for studying hard. In order to learn more, she developed the habit of getting up before six o'clock every morning to study, and often studied by herself until late at night. Not only did she study hard on her own, but she also worked tirelessly to teach scientific knowledge to children in rural Poland and spread Polish culture among female factory workers. However, in doing so, she could be discovered by spies at any time and arrested by Tsarist Russian inspectors.

But Mary had only one idea in her mind: to serve the oppressed motherland and study for the liberation of the motherland. As she said in a letter to a childhood friend: "I have exhausted all my strength to cope with all this and keep trying...I have the highest principle: no matter whether it is for people or things, I will never do anything wrong. Don’t give in! …”

Aim for the top

Where there is a will, there is a way. After five hard years, Mary used her stubborn hands to open up the road to her ideal state. Her elder sister received a doctorate and her younger sister embarked on a new journey.

Mary came to Paris to study at the Sorbonne College. She wore faded and silky clothes; she lived in an indescribably shabby hut; she ran out of money and often had to eat bread and tea for a whole week. . The university library was like a magic magnet, attracting Mary tightly. Mary was like a greedy sponge, desperately sucking the milk of knowledge. Once, while she was studying at her desk in the library, she suddenly fainted and fell to the ground. Some classmates called a doctor to examine her. It turned out that Mary forgot to eat. Forgetting to eat has become a common thing for Mary. Her brother-in-law and sister often worried about this matter, and Mary often laughed about this forgotten thing. Whenever the library closed at ten o'clock in the evening, Mary left with a feeling of regret, returned to her small room, and continued to study under the kerosene lamp until two o'clock in the middle of the night. While she was lying on the bed to rest, she was so cold that she had to get up, put on all her clothes one by one, and then lay down again. When I got up in the morning, the water in the washbasin froze into ice cubes, and even the water in the kettle also froze. The hard life and hard study made this young girl look pale and haggard. However, Mary, who is climbing to the top of science, is like the snow lotus on the iceberg, blooming red and radiating brilliant colors. In her degree examinations at Solburn College, Mary came first with distinction in her Masters in Physics. Since then, Mary's research has expanded to many aspects. During an experiment to study the magnetism of metals, Mary met the outstanding physicist Pierre Curie at a meeting of the Physical Society. We met on the rugged path and bonded on the climb to the pinnacle of science. From then on, Marie and Curie became inseparable names.

Physicist Henry Becquerel discovered that uranium salts emit invisible rays. At that time, the source of this mysterious ray was still an unanswerable problem for scientists. It was from solving this problem that the Curies started their common life and battle. After repeated research and experiments, they finally discovered radioactive elements - "polonium" and "radium" from pitch-like uranium ore. After conquering Henry Becquerel's problem, the Curies did not stop their footsteps, but continued to move towards the glorious peak! At that time, almost all chemists and physicists took a wait-and-see attitude towards the discovery of radium. Therefore, the Curies set themselves a new difficult task: to make up their minds to extract a "considerable" amount of radium from pitch-like uranium ore and to produce "real evidence" to prove the existence of this "mysterious" ray. .

Without money to buy pitchy uranium ore for testing, they used the residue of pitchy uranium ore for testing; without a laboratory, they borrowed a simple wooden room in their school to conduct experiments. Thus began the two scientists' war against nature. Heating a large amount of slag and stirring it in a vat containing the slag for several hours at a time is an arduous physical labor. The pungent steam emanating from the cabin was suffocating. It was under such harsh conditions that the Curies fought unremittingly to extract "radium". In order to keep the experiment uninterrupted, they often stayed here, doing experiments and cooking a simple meal to satisfy their hunger. Day after day, year after year, four years passed. Although the Curies went through all kinds of hardships, the experiment to analyze radium still failed.

The unhygienic working environment caused Pierre Curie to suffer from pain in his limbs. Mary's burden was even heavier. She needs to heat and stir a large amount of slag, and pour out the juice in the vat, such as distillation, crystallization, etc. The heavy labor of chemical treatment left Mary paralyzed. Every night, after taking care of her children, she would start writing their papers, sometimes spending the entire year in the laboratory. The young couple had not been to the theater, to a concert, or even to visit friends.

However, in just one year, the Curies actually wrote three scientific papers that shocked the world. As Marie Curie later said when looking back on this arduous journey: "...the few years spent in this simple wooden house were the most valuable and happiest years in our lives that were completely dedicated to work. Period."

On a snowy night in the late winter of 1902, the Curies stood side by side, holding hands, facing the lights of thousands of houses, walking through the thick snow, as usual. Go to their lab. When Pierre Curie struck a match and opened the door, he was stopped by Marie Curie and said: "Don't light it." They walked into the hut in the dark and were stunned. This simple wooden house has become a magic palace: a crystal blue light is emitted from bottles, jars, and barrels, especially the glass tube containing the experimental product, the light emitted is even stronger

Strong. Invisible rays, seen! Mysterious ray revealed! The radium they thought about day and night was born! However, who would have thought that the first gram of radium in the world was actually extracted by the Curies from eight tons of pitch-like uranium ore residues after four years of hard work. It is like a bright pearl inlaid on the top of science, picked off by the Curies who are not afraid of hard work! The birth of this gram of radium contains the lessons of many failures of the Curies and the joy of many victories! As for how much sweat and brains they put into their labor, it is impossible to calculate, but from the letters Marie Curie wrote to her brother when she was still a student, we can see the progress of this great cause. Success lies in:

"People must have patience, especially confidence", "I should believe that I have special talents for a certain cause, and I should complete this cause at any cost." < /p>

Despise utilitarianism

The great achievements of the Curies in discovering radium and the honor of receiving the Nobel Prize shocked the whole world like a spring thunder. Sincere invitations from the foreign scientific community and warm congratulatory letters from all over the country came like snowflakes; visitors with high respect came in an endless stream; strangers asked for autographs and souvenirs; photographers came to take pictures; News reporters came to interview... When Marie Curie was an unknown and poor student, hunger, cold, poverty and cold eyes surrounded and harassed her. She had made an impact on all of this

He replied solemnly: Never give in! Study hard! Today, when millions of francs and brilliant gold medals smile at her; when success, honors, and congratulations come like a flood, the Curies use firm actions to show that they have noble qualities; Don't boast, be humble and selfless!

Once, a newspaper reporter came to interview the scientist and wanted to report her deeds. She answered firmly: "What is important in science is the 'thing' that is studied, not the 'person' of the researcher."

As for the thing that was studied - radium, several friends advised them to Apply for a patent to produce radium. Marie Curie made this decision on behalf of her husband: "This should not be done. It goes against the spirit of science. Scientists' research results should be published openly without any restrictions. - If our discoveries can be profitable, This is just an accidental thing, and we should not have any priority on it. Besides, radium is good for patients... In my opinion, we should not use this to make profits."

This great discovery is handed over to the industrial and medical communities for widespread use without seeking any personal gain. Marie Curie, who had always been poor, did not care about the huge Nobel Prize. Instead, she gave a large number of prizes to Polish college students, poor girlfriends, laboratory assistants, poor female students, and teachers. Her teachers and relatives who have supported her.

The University of Geneva in Switzerland has publicly proposed to provide them with generous treatment and hire them to give lectures at the university. As ordinary middle school teachers, the Curies believed that although doing so would be beneficial to themselves, it would affect or even interrupt their research work, so they declined and continued to conduct experiments in their dilapidated wooden room. After Pierre Curie passed away, Madame Curie donated the results of their joint research, radium worth one million francs, to a laboratory that researches and treats cancer free of charge. She said: "As long as we can cure the disease, or even relieve the patient's pain, then our work will be considered in vain." Many friends blamed her for not leaving this property to her children.

Madame Curie had her own opinion. She said: "Poverty is certainly uncomfortable," but "being rich is unnecessary and even annoying." She asked her children to use hard-working hands to develop their own lives. the way. But what she left to her children was her independent and unruly spirit and her noble moral character that despised utilitarianism.

The famous scholar Einstein once said of Madame Curie: "Of all the famous people I know, Madame Curie is the only one who is not overwhelmed by fame."

In 1914, the First World War broke out. When the German invaders approached Paris, Marie Curie resolutely embarked on the battlefield of the anti-aggression war. She used her scientific knowledge to serve the wounded. In order to quickly detect the location of bullets and shells on the injured, perform surgery on the wounded in time, and relieve their pain and death, Marie Curie studied using the engine of a car to generate electricity. An X-ray device was installed on the car. This kind of movable X-ray vehicle was affectionately called "Little Curie" by the soldiers. One morning, the "Little Curie" in which Madame Curie was riding suddenly had an accident and fell into a roadside trench. Madame Curie was bruised and fell unconscious, which frightened the young driver. He said he never dared to drive a car again. Marie Curie began to study hard to drive during the war. A few weeks later, she became a qualified driver again. From then on, Madame Curie drove the car herself, running tirelessly from one diagnosis and treatment station to another. As soon as she got off the car, she entered into the intense battle of fluoroscopy and photography...

If Curie Madam's heroic dedication on this battlefield under heavy gunfire is commendable, so her heroic dedication in that silent laboratory. Even more awe-inspiring. After the discovery of radium, Marie Curie became an authority on X-rays and began to refine the radioactive element "actinium". For decades, Marie Curie was often attacked by radioactive elements due to her long-term research work on radioactive substances, harsh experimental environment and insufficient physical protection, which gradually damaged her blood. She suffered from lung disease, eye disease, bile disease, kidney disease, and even insanity. However, for Marie Curie, scientific research was more important than her own health. She once asked doctors to postpone kidney surgery in order to attend the World Physics Congress; she once returned to China despite being ill to attend the opening ceremony of the Radium Institute. She once endured the fear of blindness and tenaciously conducted scientific research. Until her last breath, due to pernicious anemia and persistent high fever, when she was lying in bed, she still asked her daughter to report to her on the work in the laboratory and proofread her book "Radioactivity" for her. Marie Curie devoted her life entirely to the great cause of science.

On July 4, 1934, Marie Curie, the pioneer of the atomic age and the "mother" of radium, passed away. However, her highest principle of never giving in, her ambition to reach the top, her noble moral character that despises utilitarianism, and her practical spirit of heroic sacrifice will always be engraved in people's hearts and inspire people to move towards new goals! v