The genius of Marie Curie - Shohini Ghose

翻译人员: Riley WANG 校对人员: Lipeng Chen

If you want a glimpse of Marie Curie's manuscripts,

如果要翻阅玛丽·居里的手稿，

you'll have to sign a waiver and put on protective gear

你可能需要签一份免责声明并带好防护器具，

to shield yourself from radiation contamination.

才能不受到放射性污染。

Madame Curie's remains, too, were interred in a lead-lined coffin,

居里夫人的遗体也被置于内衬铅的棺材中，

keeping the radiation that was the heart of her research,

免受辐射的影响，

and likely the cause of her death, well contained.

这是她研究的核心，也很可能是她的死因。

Growing up in Warsaw in Russian-occupied Poland,

居里夫人成长于俄国控制的波兰首都，华沙，

the young Marie, originally named Maria Sklodowska,

原名为玛丽·斯克沃多夫斯卡

was a brilliant student, but she faced some challenging barriers.

自小便是一个聪明的孩子，却面临诸多挑战。

As a woman, she was barred from pursuing higher education,

作为女性，她不能够获得高等教育，

so in an act of defiance,

作为反抗，

她进入“空中大学”读书，

Marie enrolled in the Floating University,

a secret institution that provided clandestine education to Polish youth.

这是一个为波兰年轻人提供教育的地下机构。

By saving money and working as a governess and tutor,

通过辛苦攒钱和做家教，

she eventually was able to move to Paris to study at the reputed Sorbonne.

玛丽终于能够前往著名的巴黎索邦大学读书。

There, Marie earned both a physics and mathematics degree

在此，玛丽获得了物理和化学学位，

surviving largely on bread and tea,

生活艰苦的她主要以面包、茶水充饥，

and sometimes fainting from near starvation.

有时还会因为饥饿而昏倒。

In Paris, Marie met the physicist Pierre Curie,

在巴黎，玛利亚遇到了物理学家皮埃尔·居里，

who shared his lab and his heart with her.

他提供自己的实验室给玛丽， 也献出了自己的爱。

But she longed to be back in Poland.

但玛丽仍渴望回到波兰。

Upon her return to Warsaw, though,

在她回到华沙后，

she found that securing an academic position as a woman

她发现女性仍然无法

remained a challenge.

在学术领域占有一席之地。

All was not lost.

一切都还是老样子。

Back in Paris, the lovelorn Pierre was waiting,

于是她重返巴黎，等待她的是单相思的皮埃尔，

and the pair quickly married and became a formidable scientific team.

二人迅速结婚，并组成了坚定的科学伙伴。

Another physicist's work sparked Marie Curie's interest.

另一位物理学家的研究引起了玛丽的兴趣。

In 1896, Henri Becquerel discovered that uranium spontaneously emitted

1896年，亨利·贝克勒尔发现铀可以自发产生

a mysterious X-ray-like radiation that could interact with photographic film.

类似X光的射线，使感光胶片显影。

Curie soon found that the element thorium emitted similar radiation.

居里夫人马上发现 钍也能产生类似的放射性。

Most importantly, the strength of the radiation

最重要的是，

放射性的强度只与元素的量相关，

depended solely on the element's quantity,

and was not affected by physical or chemical changes.

且不受物理或化学性变化的影响。

This led her to conclude that radiation was coming from something fundamental

这使得她得出结论： 放射性来源于元素

原子核内更基本的某种物质。

within the atoms of each element.

The idea was radical

这是一个非常大胆的设想，

and helped to disprove the long-standing model of atoms as indivisible objects.

并证明了长久以来 对原子结构模型的推测是错误的。

Next, by focusing on a super radioactive ore called pitchblende,

之后，通过专注研究放射性极强的沥青油矿，

the Curies realized that uranium alone couldn't be creating all the radiation.

居里夫妇意识到 铀并不是唯一的放射性来源。

So, were there other radioactive elements that might be responsible?

因此，是否还存在其他放射性元素？

In 1898, they reported two new elements,

1898年，他们二人发现了两种新的元素：

polonium, named for Marie's native Poland,

以玛丽的祖国命名的钋，

and radium, the Latin word for ray.

以及镭，是拉丁语中“射线”的意思。

They also coined the term radioactivity along the way.

他们同时也创造了“放射性”这个词。

By 1902, the Curies had extracted a tenth of a gram of pure radium chloride salt

到1902年时，居里夫妇从几吨沥青油矿中

提炼出了十分之一克纯氯化镭，

from several tons of pitchblende,

an incredible feat at the time.

这在当时是一件不可思议的功绩。

Later that year, Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel

下半年，皮埃尔·居里与亨利·贝克勒尔

were nominated for the Nobel Prize in physics,

被提名为诺贝尔物理学奖获得者，

but Marie was overlooked.

但玛丽并未获得提名。

Pierre took a stand in support of his wife's well-earned recognition.

皮埃尔支持妻子得到她应当的褒奖。

And so both of the Curies and Becquerel shared the 1903 Nobel Prize,

于是，居里夫妇和贝克勒尔 共同获得了1903年的诺贝尔奖。

making Marie Curie the first female Nobel Laureate.

这使得玛丽·居里成为了 第一位获得诺贝尔奖的女性。

Well funded and well respected, the Curies were on a roll.

居里夫妇得到了充足的资金和尊重， 一切都很顺利。

But tragedy struck in 1906 when Pierre was crushed by a horse-drawn cart

但灾难也在1906年降临，皮埃尔在通过一个

车流密集的十字路口时被一辆马车撞倒。

as he crossed a busy intersection.

Marie, devastated, immersed herself in her research

绝望的玛丽只能让自己沉浸在研究中，

and took over Pierre's teaching position at the Sorbonne,

并接手了皮埃尔在索邦大学的教职，

becoming the school's first female professor.

她也是这里的第一位女教授。

Her solo work was fruitful.

居里夫人的工作取得了丰硕的成果。

In 1911, she won yet another Nobel,

1911年，她再次获得了诺贝尔奖，

this time in chemistry for her earlier discovery of radium and polonium,

这次则为诺贝尔化学奖以表彰她发现镭和钋，

and her extraction and analysis of pure radium and its compounds.

以及对镭及其化合物的提纯与分析。

This made her the first, and to this date,

这使她成为迄今为止第一也是唯一一位，

only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences.

在不同领域获得诺贝尔奖的人士。

Professor Curie put her discoveries to work,

居里夫人将其研究应用到实践中，

changing the landscape of medical research and treatments.

改变了医学研究和治疗的前景。

She opened mobile radiology units during World War I,

一战期间，她建立了移动式放射中心，

and investigated radiation's effects on tumors.

并调查了射线对肿瘤的影响。

However, these benefits to humanity may have come at a high personal cost.

但是，全人类的获益伴随着巨大的个人牺牲。

Curie died in 1934 of a bone marrow disease,

居里夫人因骨髓病逝于1934年，

which many today think was caused by her radiation exposure.

很多人认为这是由于她大量接触的放射性所导致。

Marie Curie's revolutionary research

玛丽·居里革命性的研究

laid the groundwork for our understanding of physics and chemistry,

为众多科学领域打下了坚实基础，

blazing trails in oncology, technology, medicine, and nuclear physics,

包括物理、化学，

开辟了肿瘤学、技术工艺，药学 以及核物理等新领域。

to name a few.

For good or ill, her discoveries in radiation launched a new era,

她在放射性领域的发现 开创了一个新的纪元，

unearthing some of science's greatest secrets.

揭示了科学中一些最为重大的秘密。