Discovery of Marie Curie

November 4, 2003

Discovery of Marie Curie

“Two things will never cease to amaze us, --

the infinite starlit heaven above our heads,

and the infinite spiritual space within us.”

All people are talented, all people have a gift from the Lord, but not everybody discovers this talent, not everybody develops it. Paradoxically, but generally just the brightest people at the beginning of their life had more obstacles and sufferings then other people. Maybe the suffering and barriers are just what can allow them to develop their persistence, industriousness, which helps them develop their talent.

Marie Curie had had a hard childhood, she experienced poverty, disease and the death of her sister and mother. Later she became lone of parents, she faced rejections by the Polish aristocracy, and by the person whom she loved. For the more, she lost her father. However, all of these unfortunate events made her prove stronger person. She tried to prove all over the world, which ignored her, that she was a person who could be worthy of respect and attention. Somebody in her situation maybe feels despair, depressed, but not Marie. She never gave up affront obstacles on her way. Her life’s creed is shown this quotation :

“ Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained. “ In her words we can see her unyielding spirit, her free soul, which she kept all her life.

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Marie’s strive for knowledge took originated from her period in her childhood, when she, in surrounded her sisters and brother, all the time crying and boisterous male-roommates, was living in the dining room and every morning had to wake up at six o’clock. In this noisy environment only the world of books was a place of quiet and privacy for her. When Marie was studying at high school, she wrote to her friend Kazia, -- “I like school . . . . I must tell you that I love it.”

She was a patriot of her country and she really tried to help the Polish people, but she really tried to help the French people also. This means that love for all people general dominated her character, and it was above lave for some specific nationality. This is an example of a global and humanistic intellect.

Love to people in general, combines in her character with love for one’s nearest and dearest people. Her love for Pierre shows for us example her straight and holistic nature. She didn’t fall in love immediately after first meeting him but after she knew him better, and understood what kind of person he was she loved him so much and dedicated to him all her life. Her feeling of responsibility go from her great responsibility above herself. We can understand this when we read about her sacrifice, during in time her education at the Sorbonne. She was hungry, she didn’t sleep for a long time, sometimes she felt herself to bed but she was patient because she gave a promise to herself to be a scientist and didn’t go back from her plan even an inch.

When we read the biography of Marie Curie, we are discovering her not like a grate scientist -- about hers and her discovery we know from our schoolbooks, but as a Great Person, whom deserves respect for her adamant spirit and large soul. Even it she didn’t discover anything, she deserves to be written about in the book. As one writer said, only with these people should we compare our life and try to be similar to them.

by:Mykhaylo Kazarenko