1 00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:08,880 In 1927 the world's greatest scientists assembled in Belgium, 2 00:00:08,880 --> 00:00:12,960 to thrash out some of the most fundamental problems in physics. 3 00:00:16,440 --> 00:00:20,880 29 showed up, 17 of whom would become Nobel prize-winners, 4 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:23,480 but one of their number could trump them all. 5 00:00:25,120 --> 00:00:29,080 Someone who'd bagged two Nobel prizes in two different sciences. 6 00:00:30,240 --> 00:00:36,080 In a man's world, a woman had broken through - Madame Marie Curie. 7 00:00:39,560 --> 00:00:42,640 This is the story of Marie Curie's life - the adventures 8 00:00:42,640 --> 00:00:48,720 of a woman who refused to conform to the social mores of her time. 9 00:00:48,720 --> 00:00:52,560 A woman who could pop in on presidents, and holidayed with Einstein... 10 00:00:55,640 --> 00:00:58,080 ..who once trod the boards on Broadway... 11 00:01:02,160 --> 00:01:05,760 ..ran mobile X-ray units on the front as the French battled the Hun... 12 00:01:08,000 --> 00:01:10,760 ..who even had duels fought over her. 13 00:01:10,760 --> 00:01:14,720 And wonderfully, for such a fiercely private woman, 14 00:01:14,720 --> 00:01:18,400 we've been left a unique view of her inner struggles in life and love. 15 00:01:21,880 --> 00:01:24,640 Because in the decades that followed her death, 16 00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:28,320 her family released her most intimate letters. 17 00:01:28,320 --> 00:01:30,080 "I am impatient to see you, 18 00:01:30,080 --> 00:01:33,520 "much more than I am uneasy about the difficulties to come. 19 00:01:33,520 --> 00:01:37,080 "It will be good to hear your voice again and see your dear eyes. 20 00:01:37,080 --> 00:01:43,040 "Until Saturday, my darling, I will not stop thinking of you." 21 00:01:46,200 --> 00:01:48,840 The letters reveal the real Marie - 22 00:01:48,840 --> 00:01:52,480 a woman full of passion, an obsessive genius, 23 00:01:52,480 --> 00:01:55,520 whose life was beset by tragedy and scandal. 24 00:02:13,960 --> 00:02:19,280 In every great life, there's a moment that comes to define you. 25 00:02:19,280 --> 00:02:21,960 A moment of crisis that forces you to dig deep 26 00:02:21,960 --> 00:02:24,080 and establish who you truly are. 27 00:02:27,480 --> 00:02:31,600 For Marie Curie, that moment came in the autumn of 1911, 28 00:02:31,600 --> 00:02:35,360 some five years after the tragic death of her husband, Pierre Curie. 29 00:02:38,840 --> 00:02:41,840 She was at the world's first international meeting 30 00:02:41,840 --> 00:02:43,680 of physicists and chemists. 31 00:02:43,680 --> 00:02:46,120 An historic, invitation-only event, 32 00:02:46,120 --> 00:02:48,960 which would become known as the Solvay Conference. 33 00:02:51,240 --> 00:02:53,480 And she was happy - 34 00:02:53,480 --> 00:02:56,080 perhaps because she had just received a telegram confirming 35 00:02:56,080 --> 00:02:58,400 she had won a SECOND Nobel prize. 36 00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:03,160 Or perhaps because she was there with her lover. 37 00:03:07,200 --> 00:03:10,280 Paul Langevin, he was a physicist, and at some point, 38 00:03:10,280 --> 00:03:13,200 he was actually a student of Pierre Curie's. 39 00:03:13,200 --> 00:03:15,160 And he had worked with the Curies. 40 00:03:15,160 --> 00:03:17,400 I mean, certainly both of them knew him. 41 00:03:17,400 --> 00:03:22,480 And he was a physicist of renown - everyone knew who he was. 42 00:03:22,480 --> 00:03:25,520 Most of what we know of their affair comes from the letters that 43 00:03:25,520 --> 00:03:27,400 Marie wrote to Paul. 44 00:03:27,400 --> 00:03:31,840 "The instinct which led us to each other was very powerful. 45 00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:36,120 "I believe that we could derive everything from it - good work 46 00:03:36,120 --> 00:03:40,360 "in common, a good solid friendship, courage for life and even 47 00:03:40,360 --> 00:03:45,680 "beautiful children of love in the most beautiful meaning of the word." 48 00:03:51,200 --> 00:03:53,760 Jeanne Langevin, Paul's wife, 49 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:56,800 understandably was rather jealous and unhappy about this. 50 00:03:56,800 --> 00:04:01,080 She was a really intense, rather violent woman. 51 00:04:01,080 --> 00:04:04,160 According to a witness, Madame Langevin accosted Marie 52 00:04:04,160 --> 00:04:09,200 in the street, where she threatened to kill her if she didn't leave France. 53 00:04:10,520 --> 00:04:14,920 Marie implored Paul to end the marriage. 54 00:04:14,920 --> 00:04:19,560 "When I know you are with her, my nights are atrocious. I can't sleep. 55 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:23,200 "I wake up with a sensation of fever and I can't work." 56 00:04:26,720 --> 00:04:30,040 Marie's downfall came when pictures were published of Paul 57 00:04:30,040 --> 00:04:32,520 and her at the Solvay conference. 58 00:04:32,520 --> 00:04:37,440 Enraged, Madame Langevin decided to act. 59 00:04:37,440 --> 00:04:40,480 One day, when she was sure Paul Langevin wasn't there, 60 00:04:40,480 --> 00:04:42,520 she somehow managed to persuade someone 61 00:04:42,520 --> 00:04:46,800 to break into the apartment, where this person found a cache of very 62 00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:51,640 intimate love letters between Marie Curie and Paul Langevin. 63 00:04:51,640 --> 00:04:55,400 Marie came back from her conference to discover that 64 00:04:55,400 --> 00:04:57,640 parts of the letters had been published in the press. 65 00:04:57,640 --> 00:05:00,600 This had suddenly become a very, very public affair. 66 00:05:07,720 --> 00:05:10,960 The press ran a series of scurrilous claims against her. 67 00:05:24,960 --> 00:05:28,000 This venomous publicity stirred up an angry mob, 68 00:05:28,000 --> 00:05:31,120 who surrounded her home and threw stones at the windows. 69 00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:32,240 GLASS SMASHING 70 00:05:36,520 --> 00:05:41,440 The whole affair spiralled into a farcical nightmare. 71 00:05:41,440 --> 00:05:45,080 For Langevin, the final straw came when he read an article 72 00:05:45,080 --> 00:05:50,520 in a newspaper accusing him of hiding behind a Polish woman's skirts. 73 00:05:50,520 --> 00:05:54,240 And for him, that was such an insult to his French dignity 74 00:05:54,240 --> 00:05:57,000 that he challenged the editor of the paper to a duel. 75 00:06:04,360 --> 00:06:06,800 They met at exactly 11 o'clock in the morning. 76 00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:09,840 They paced out 25 yards. 77 00:06:11,760 --> 00:06:13,920 They raised their pistols at each other 78 00:06:13,920 --> 00:06:18,160 and the editor reported afterwards that he looked at Langevin 79 00:06:18,160 --> 00:06:20,600 and he thought, "I can't possibly kill this man. 80 00:06:20,600 --> 00:06:24,080 "He's one of France's greatest scientists!" so he pointed 81 00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:25,480 his pistol to the ground. 82 00:06:25,480 --> 00:06:27,320 So then there was Langevin, and he thought, 83 00:06:27,320 --> 00:06:30,160 "I can't possibly shoot this man. He's not pointing a gun at me," 84 00:06:30,160 --> 00:06:33,800 so he put his gun down as well. 85 00:06:35,080 --> 00:06:37,560 And that was the end of the duel between them. 86 00:06:39,720 --> 00:06:42,360 Paul Langevin returned to his wife with honour restored 87 00:06:42,360 --> 00:06:46,600 and reputation intact. 88 00:06:46,600 --> 00:06:48,240 Marie fared less well. 89 00:06:49,680 --> 00:06:53,000 Publicly humiliated, she'd lost her companion 90 00:06:53,000 --> 00:06:55,400 and the controversy meant she couldn't continue 91 00:06:55,400 --> 00:06:58,840 the scientific work that had brought her so much happiness. 92 00:06:58,840 --> 00:07:00,960 She fled into hiding with her daughters, 93 00:07:00,960 --> 00:07:04,280 and entered a deep depression. 94 00:07:04,280 --> 00:07:08,160 The story of how Marie Curie ascended to become the world's most 95 00:07:08,160 --> 00:07:14,880 famous female scientist, how she lost it all and subsequently achieved redemption 96 00:07:14,880 --> 00:07:19,320 is one of the greatest sagas in the history of science. 97 00:07:19,320 --> 00:07:23,600 And it starts not in Paris, but a thousand miles away to the east. 98 00:07:35,160 --> 00:07:40,240 Marie Curie was born in obscurity, in a different country 99 00:07:40,240 --> 00:07:44,640 and under a completely different name. 100 00:07:44,640 --> 00:07:47,960 This is the museum of Maria Sklodowska-Curie. 101 00:07:47,960 --> 00:07:53,040 In 1867, on the seventh of November, it was the place where 102 00:07:53,040 --> 00:07:55,120 Maria Sklodowska was born. 103 00:07:56,800 --> 00:08:00,520 From the beginning, Maria, as she'd been christened, 104 00:08:00,520 --> 00:08:03,080 had to face prejudice every day. 105 00:08:03,080 --> 00:08:09,080 Marie Sklodowska was born when Poland was divided by three countries - 106 00:08:09,080 --> 00:08:10,680 Russia, Prussia and Austria. 107 00:08:12,000 --> 00:08:16,840 And in that time, Warsaw was occupied by Russians. 108 00:08:16,840 --> 00:08:21,360 It was forbidden to talk in Polish, to learn Polish history. 109 00:08:21,360 --> 00:08:22,880 To make Polish science. 110 00:08:26,200 --> 00:08:30,000 Indeed, ever since Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815, 111 00:08:30,000 --> 00:08:35,400 Warsaw had been under the rule of Tsarist Russia. 112 00:08:35,400 --> 00:08:38,000 The occupiers set about a cultural cleansing, 113 00:08:38,000 --> 00:08:40,160 banning Polish folk songs and dancing. 114 00:08:46,240 --> 00:08:48,280 Russian became the state language. 115 00:08:52,840 --> 00:08:55,400 So it was in private that her father, 116 00:08:55,400 --> 00:08:59,240 Professor Wladyslaw Sklodowski, sparked her passion for science. 117 00:09:01,760 --> 00:09:05,440 At home he kept a cabinet full of scientific apparatus that fascinated 118 00:09:05,440 --> 00:09:10,880 the young Maria, who by the age of four was already a confident reader. 119 00:09:14,720 --> 00:09:18,560 Later the same year, her mother began to lose weight 120 00:09:18,560 --> 00:09:22,560 and would cough constantly - a sign that tuberculosis was taking hold. 121 00:09:26,080 --> 00:09:28,280 And of course doctors said, you know, 122 00:09:28,280 --> 00:09:30,160 you have to stay of clear your daughter 123 00:09:30,160 --> 00:09:33,760 and so she didn't have a lot of physical affection from her mother. 124 00:09:35,840 --> 00:09:39,080 Her mother finally succumbed to the disease in 1878 125 00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:40,880 when Maria was just 12 years old. 126 00:09:42,240 --> 00:09:45,360 "For many years, we all felt weighing on us 127 00:09:45,360 --> 00:09:48,400 "the loss of the one who had been the soul of the house." 128 00:09:50,240 --> 00:09:53,880 So for most of her formative years, her father raised her as best 129 00:09:53,880 --> 00:09:57,760 he could as a poorly paid teacher. 130 00:09:57,760 --> 00:10:00,600 She adored him and it was from him that she 131 00:10:00,600 --> 00:10:05,040 inherited her questioning nature and her life-long love of science. 132 00:10:06,960 --> 00:10:08,880 EASTERN EUROPEAN FOLK MUSIC 133 00:10:12,480 --> 00:10:17,640 Maria left school aged 15 with a gold medal for topping her year. 134 00:10:17,640 --> 00:10:20,160 But Warsaw University was closed to women, 135 00:10:20,160 --> 00:10:25,080 so she was forced to give up her passion for science. 136 00:10:25,080 --> 00:10:31,680 She abandoned her studies and left to join her relatives in the country. 137 00:10:31,680 --> 00:10:33,320 EASTERN EUROPEAN FOLK SINGING 138 00:10:42,640 --> 00:10:46,520 "We do everything that comes to our minds. Sometimes we sleep 139 00:10:46,520 --> 00:10:51,800 "at night, sometimes during the day. We dance, and in all, we frolic 140 00:10:51,800 --> 00:10:55,880 "so much that sometimes we might deserve to be locked up in a mental home..." 141 00:11:02,760 --> 00:11:07,040 For most girls of her age, finding a good husband was the next step. 142 00:11:07,040 --> 00:11:11,640 But she and her older sister Bronia would break the convention. 143 00:11:11,640 --> 00:11:12,760 MUSIC STOPS 144 00:11:12,760 --> 00:11:13,840 Whoo! Bravo! 145 00:11:13,840 --> 00:11:15,360 APPLAUSE 146 00:11:15,360 --> 00:11:18,200 They concocted an audacious plan that would allow them 147 00:11:18,200 --> 00:11:20,840 both to get a university education. 148 00:11:27,120 --> 00:11:29,920 Maria would remain in the Polish countryside, 149 00:11:29,920 --> 00:11:32,040 to seek work as a governess. 150 00:11:32,040 --> 00:11:37,680 She would support Bronia as she left to study medicine at the Sorbonne University in Paris. 151 00:11:37,680 --> 00:11:40,920 In return, Bronia would later help Maria to join her there. 152 00:11:44,960 --> 00:11:51,400 And so it was that in the winter of 1886, Maria arrived at the family home of a wealthy beetroot farmer... 153 00:11:53,960 --> 00:11:57,600 ..the ruins of which still stand on land owned by Teresa Kaczorowska. 154 00:12:00,240 --> 00:12:02,200 Almost at once, Maria felt at home. 155 00:12:53,720 --> 00:12:57,520 Maria taught the Zorawski children upstairs in her little room. 156 00:12:57,520 --> 00:13:01,240 And it was here that one day she met their eldest brother, 157 00:13:01,240 --> 00:13:04,000 a meeting that threatened to derail all her plans. 158 00:14:04,320 --> 00:14:09,240 The rejection of the Zorawski family sent her into a depression 159 00:14:09,240 --> 00:14:14,280 that saw her abandon all thoughts of leaving Poland. 160 00:14:14,280 --> 00:14:16,160 "I have been stupid, 161 00:14:16,160 --> 00:14:22,200 "I am stupid and I shall remain stupid all the days of my life. 162 00:14:22,200 --> 00:14:24,840 "I dreamed of Paris as of redemption, 163 00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:28,920 "but the hope of going there left me a long time ago." 164 00:14:33,360 --> 00:14:37,720 Heartbroken, Maria returned to her ageing father in Warsaw. 165 00:14:37,720 --> 00:14:42,000 And here she may have remained in obscurity, if it wasn't for 166 00:14:42,000 --> 00:14:48,080 what went on in this building, the Museum of Industry and Agriculture, 167 00:14:48,080 --> 00:14:52,280 because behind its impressive facade was a secret Polish laboratory. 168 00:14:55,600 --> 00:15:01,200 This is a very important place in Maria's scientific life. When she was 169 00:15:01,200 --> 00:15:09,120 about 18-19 years old she started to learn here chemical analysis. 170 00:15:10,560 --> 00:15:14,200 The lab was part of the so-called Flying University, 171 00:15:14,200 --> 00:15:17,120 which moved from location to location around Warsaw 172 00:15:17,120 --> 00:15:20,520 to avoid the suspicion of the Russians. 173 00:15:20,520 --> 00:15:24,360 Here, all Poles could advance their education, be they male or female. 174 00:15:27,200 --> 00:15:30,880 "I tried to reproduce various experiments described in treatises 175 00:15:30,880 --> 00:15:35,520 "on physics and chemistry. From time to time a little unhoped-for success 176 00:15:35,520 --> 00:15:40,360 "would encourage me, and at others I sank into despair. 177 00:15:40,360 --> 00:15:46,160 "But on the whole, I discovered my taste for experimental research during these first trials." 178 00:15:56,680 --> 00:16:03,280 Marie had rediscovered her appetite for science. She wrote to Bronia. 179 00:16:03,280 --> 00:16:06,240 "If my coming is just possible, tell me, 180 00:16:06,240 --> 00:16:09,040 "and tell me what entrance examinations I must pass, 181 00:16:09,040 --> 00:16:12,800 "and what is the latest date at which I can register as a student. 182 00:16:12,800 --> 00:16:16,240 "I am so nervous at the prospect of my departure that 183 00:16:16,240 --> 00:16:18,080 "I can't speak of anything else. 184 00:16:23,600 --> 00:16:27,840 Bronia could at last repay her little sister as Maria prepared 185 00:16:27,840 --> 00:16:29,200 to give herself to physics. 186 00:16:36,320 --> 00:16:42,800 At the close of the nineteenth century, the study of physics was a backwater. 187 00:16:42,800 --> 00:16:47,040 In the universities of Europe, it was widely accepted that all 188 00:16:47,040 --> 00:16:51,040 the important laws of nature had been discovered. 189 00:16:51,040 --> 00:16:56,360 Theories of electromagnetism, thermodynamics and mechanics seemed to explain everything. 190 00:17:06,560 --> 00:17:11,640 No-one could foresee that there was a scientific revolution looming, 191 00:17:11,640 --> 00:17:16,280 even less that one of its leaders would be a poor young woman 192 00:17:16,280 --> 00:17:20,960 from Poland who had just enrolled in the physics faculty. 193 00:17:20,960 --> 00:17:23,400 # Leave your home 194 00:17:26,840 --> 00:17:27,880 # Change your name 195 00:17:33,040 --> 00:17:34,920 # Live alone... # 196 00:17:36,840 --> 00:17:40,880 In the spring of 1891, Maria Sklodowska arrived in Paris. 197 00:17:44,120 --> 00:17:46,560 She found herself in France at a time 198 00:17:46,560 --> 00:17:50,600 when there was some ill-feeling towards foreigners. 199 00:17:50,600 --> 00:17:52,400 So to better fit in, 200 00:17:52,400 --> 00:17:55,640 she changed her name to the more Gallic-sounding Marie. 201 00:17:57,920 --> 00:18:01,880 Her university, the Sorbonne, was one of the few elite 202 00:18:01,880 --> 00:18:05,280 European academic institutions that admitted women. 203 00:18:05,280 --> 00:18:11,480 In Britain, it would be the 1920s before Oxford and Cambridge allowed women degrees. 204 00:18:11,480 --> 00:18:15,800 She excelled, graduating first out of her entire year in science. 205 00:18:17,840 --> 00:18:19,480 But life was hard. 206 00:18:19,480 --> 00:18:22,160 After paying rent for her tiny garret room, 207 00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:26,240 she had very little left over for food or fun. 208 00:18:26,240 --> 00:18:30,840 If she was to stay in Paris, she needed a job. 209 00:18:30,840 --> 00:18:32,120 She worked on magnets, 210 00:18:32,120 --> 00:18:35,480 which now might not sound a terribly exciting subject, 211 00:18:35,480 --> 00:18:40,640 but you need magnets when you're making electric motors and dynamos. 212 00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:45,880 This was when the electricity industry was just beginning to take off. 213 00:18:47,920 --> 00:18:50,000 Electricity companies were hungry to improve 214 00:18:50,000 --> 00:18:52,600 the quality of the magnets in their generators 215 00:18:52,600 --> 00:18:56,800 and thereby produce more electricity to keep the lights on. 216 00:18:56,800 --> 00:18:59,080 Marie was hired to help. 217 00:19:01,320 --> 00:19:05,080 She carried out lots of very precise research on exactly what 218 00:19:05,080 --> 00:19:09,000 alloys you use to make a very powerful, very permanent magnet. 219 00:19:10,760 --> 00:19:13,920 Now she needed a lab in which to work. 220 00:19:13,920 --> 00:19:17,400 And thanks to some shrewd matchmaking from a fellow Pole, 221 00:19:17,400 --> 00:19:22,040 she was about to meet lab owner and expert in magnetism, Pierre Curie. 222 00:19:26,840 --> 00:19:30,520 "When I came in, Pierre Curie was standing in the window. 223 00:19:30,520 --> 00:19:34,960 "He seemed very young to me, though he was aged 35. 224 00:19:34,960 --> 00:19:37,800 "I was struck by the expression of his clear gaze, 225 00:19:37,800 --> 00:19:43,960 "and by a slight appearance of carelessness in his lofty stature." 226 00:19:43,960 --> 00:19:47,320 30 years later, she remembered that very first moment that she 227 00:19:47,320 --> 00:19:49,720 saw him across the room and she was terribly struck. 228 00:19:49,720 --> 00:19:51,920 So I guess it was love at first sight. 229 00:19:51,920 --> 00:19:54,480 She moved into the corridor of Pierre's lab 230 00:19:54,480 --> 00:19:57,960 at Ecole de Physique et Chimie and set to work. 231 00:19:57,960 --> 00:20:03,520 Here, an extraordinary romance unfolded. 232 00:20:03,520 --> 00:20:05,960 "He caught the habit of speaking to me 233 00:20:05,960 --> 00:20:08,480 "of his dream of an existence consecrated entirely 234 00:20:08,480 --> 00:20:14,720 "to scientific research, and asked me to share that life." 235 00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:19,880 Marie had her doubts. She was homesick and missed her father. 236 00:20:19,880 --> 00:20:23,760 But Pierre pleaded with her to stay and make a life with him in France. 237 00:20:25,160 --> 00:20:29,480 # Am I to be the one 238 00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:34,960 # To hold you back and make you come my way 239 00:20:34,960 --> 00:20:42,040 # I know I'm the only one to do what's to be done... # 240 00:20:43,680 --> 00:20:45,960 So where shall I put this? Oh, in the cupboard there. 241 00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:49,040 In desperation, he insisted that if she left, 242 00:20:49,040 --> 00:20:53,640 he would throw in his career and follow her to Poland. 243 00:20:57,120 --> 00:20:59,400 He won Marie over. 244 00:21:00,600 --> 00:21:05,760 "It is a sorrow to me to have to stay for ever in Paris, but what am I to do? 245 00:21:05,760 --> 00:21:08,680 "Fate has made us deeply attached to each other 246 00:21:08,680 --> 00:21:13,840 "and we cannot endure the idea of separating." 247 00:21:13,840 --> 00:21:19,000 Marie and Pierre were married on the 26th of July 1895. 248 00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:25,120 # Am I to be the one 249 00:21:25,120 --> 00:21:30,400 # To hold you back and make you come my way 250 00:21:30,400 --> 00:21:36,080 # I know I'm the only one to do... # 251 00:21:36,080 --> 00:21:41,280 They honeymooned on two wheels during the so-called Golden Age of Bicycles. 252 00:21:41,280 --> 00:21:45,240 # Am I to be the one 253 00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:49,480 # To hold you back and make you come my way... # 254 00:21:49,480 --> 00:21:51,920 On the newly invented pneumatic tyre, 255 00:21:51,920 --> 00:21:55,600 they rode far and wide across the French countryside. 256 00:21:55,600 --> 00:21:58,360 # To do what's to be done... # 257 00:22:01,480 --> 00:22:05,320 A year and a half later, still working hard on magnetism, 258 00:22:05,320 --> 00:22:07,960 Marie found herself bearing her first child. 259 00:22:07,960 --> 00:22:11,000 She approached her pregnancy rather like a modern woman. 260 00:22:11,000 --> 00:22:14,080 She went on working right until the very end, 261 00:22:14,080 --> 00:22:17,720 whereas most woman of that period after a couple of months, 262 00:22:17,720 --> 00:22:20,200 they would have completely retired from public view 263 00:22:20,200 --> 00:22:24,440 and they'd have spent a lot of time resting and lying down. 264 00:22:24,440 --> 00:22:27,880 In due course, Pierre's father, Dr Eugene Curie, 265 00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:34,320 delivered Marie's healthy six-pound baby girl, whom she named Irene. 266 00:22:34,320 --> 00:22:37,920 She really didn't want her pregnancy to hinder her work at all, 267 00:22:37,920 --> 00:22:40,640 and she was the sort of woman who was sort of back at the lab bench 268 00:22:40,640 --> 00:22:43,560 within a couple of days of the baby being born. 269 00:22:44,760 --> 00:22:47,160 Indeed, just weeks after the birth, 270 00:22:47,160 --> 00:22:50,600 Marie published her first scientific paper. 271 00:22:50,600 --> 00:22:52,600 It was an important work, which quickly spread 272 00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:56,720 around the world, standardising the manufacturing process of magnets. 273 00:22:59,160 --> 00:23:02,840 But soon after, she abandoned all work on magnetism, 274 00:23:02,840 --> 00:23:06,120 because she'd heard of a stunning new discovery - 275 00:23:06,120 --> 00:23:09,760 one that would be the making of her as a professional scientist. 276 00:23:11,480 --> 00:23:15,720 It was now 1896, and another Paris-based physicist, 277 00:23:15,720 --> 00:23:19,080 Henri Becquerel, was exploring the properties of uranium. 278 00:23:22,960 --> 00:23:25,200 Finishing work early one day, 279 00:23:25,200 --> 00:23:27,800 he placed his materials away in a desk drawer, 280 00:23:27,800 --> 00:23:33,080 leaving a nugget of uranium on top of a sealed photographic plate. 281 00:23:33,080 --> 00:23:36,160 When he opened the drawer the following day and examined the plate, 282 00:23:36,160 --> 00:23:39,600 he saw that it appeared to have been exposed to a bright light. 283 00:23:43,920 --> 00:23:48,880 Serendipity had led Becquerel to the discovery that uranium was 284 00:23:48,880 --> 00:23:52,240 emitting unknown rays that could pass through solid matter. 285 00:23:54,080 --> 00:23:56,360 Nobody had any idea what it was. 286 00:23:56,360 --> 00:24:00,120 It was not seen as a particularly fruitful research topic, 287 00:24:00,120 --> 00:24:03,160 which is probably why she, as a Polish woman, was enabled 288 00:24:03,160 --> 00:24:07,640 to pick it up, because there wasn't a lot of competition for it. 289 00:24:07,640 --> 00:24:12,600 But after publishing, Becquerel promptly gave up on the strange new rays, 290 00:24:12,600 --> 00:24:14,720 leaving the field clear for the Curies. 291 00:24:17,240 --> 00:24:20,320 But how to measure these invisible rays? 292 00:24:20,320 --> 00:24:22,440 Marie needed something more sensitive than a crude 293 00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:25,120 photographic plate. 294 00:24:25,120 --> 00:24:29,560 Fortunately, she'd married a brilliant electrical engineer, 295 00:24:29,560 --> 00:24:32,440 and he designed a way of accurately measuring the strength of any 296 00:24:32,440 --> 00:24:34,480 potential source of these rays. 297 00:24:38,520 --> 00:24:41,720 So this instrument is called ionization chamber. 298 00:24:41,720 --> 00:24:49,040 As Marie Curie did, we just have to put our sample between the two metal plates. 299 00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:52,560 The new rays would then ionise the air between the plates 300 00:24:52,560 --> 00:24:57,720 and a small electrical current would flow to another instrument called an electrometer. 301 00:24:57,720 --> 00:25:01,160 This measured exactly how much current was produced. 302 00:25:01,160 --> 00:25:04,520 The electricity will be transmitted and it will reach 303 00:25:04,520 --> 00:25:07,400 this instrument which is called electrometer. 304 00:25:07,400 --> 00:25:11,160 And then using the piezoelectrical quartz invented 305 00:25:11,160 --> 00:25:16,320 by Pierre Curie, it was possible to measure very precisely the rays emitted 306 00:25:16,320 --> 00:25:17,360 by the sample. 307 00:25:21,960 --> 00:25:26,520 Marie undertook the enormous task of measuring all the metals, 308 00:25:26,520 --> 00:25:29,280 minerals and compounds she could get her hands on, to see 309 00:25:29,280 --> 00:25:33,120 if any others were producing these invisible rays. 310 00:25:33,120 --> 00:25:36,480 And around this time, she started to refer to the phenomenon 311 00:25:36,480 --> 00:25:40,080 she was seeking as radioactivity. 312 00:25:40,080 --> 00:25:42,680 She'd given a whole new area of physics its name. 313 00:25:54,280 --> 00:25:58,520 But Marie's growing obsession with radioactivity came at a price. 314 00:26:00,600 --> 00:26:05,680 Irene, and later her second daughter Eve, were cared for by others. 315 00:26:05,680 --> 00:26:08,360 Her father-in-law took care of her daughters 316 00:26:08,360 --> 00:26:12,520 and that opened things up entirely for her. 317 00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:13,960 He was a widower at that stage, 318 00:26:13,960 --> 00:26:16,200 and I mean literally there were whole years 319 00:26:16,200 --> 00:26:18,680 when he was their caretaker. 320 00:26:18,680 --> 00:26:23,920 There are little suggestions of the daughters being resentful. 321 00:26:23,920 --> 00:26:26,280 And I say this because there were letters - 322 00:26:26,280 --> 00:26:31,040 certainly Irene would write letters and she would say, you know, "When are you going to come home? 323 00:26:31,040 --> 00:26:33,680 "When are you going to be able to read to me 324 00:26:33,680 --> 00:26:35,920 "instead of Grandfather reading to me?" 325 00:26:35,920 --> 00:26:41,440 In time, Irene would understand Marie's passion for science but Eve never would. 326 00:26:41,440 --> 00:26:44,440 And her resentment would remain throughout her life. 327 00:26:55,640 --> 00:26:58,720 Marie continued to work at Pierre's apparatus, 328 00:26:58,720 --> 00:27:02,280 until one day, whilst testing a substance called pitchblende, 329 00:27:02,280 --> 00:27:08,240 she got a result that sent the electrometer off the scale. 330 00:27:08,240 --> 00:27:12,080 This was the highest reading anyone had seen, and since it was so much 331 00:27:12,080 --> 00:27:18,520 stronger than uranium, it must be coming from an entirely new element. 332 00:27:18,520 --> 00:27:21,000 The question was, what was it? 333 00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:34,120 Since pitchblende was a mixture of different elements jumbled together, 334 00:27:34,120 --> 00:27:39,280 somehow she had to free her new element from the compound material. 335 00:27:39,280 --> 00:27:40,600 In Marie Curie's notebooks, 336 00:27:40,600 --> 00:27:44,160 she talks about starting with 100g of material. 337 00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:47,400 We're losing bits all over the place. 338 00:27:48,680 --> 00:27:54,920 You know, really substantial amounts of rock and this is really hardcore physical labour. 339 00:27:54,920 --> 00:27:59,120 You've just got to pound and grind until you've got 340 00:27:59,120 --> 00:28:03,240 a nice, fine, free-flowing material 341 00:28:03,240 --> 00:28:09,160 and at that point you can move really from the engineering into the chemistry. 342 00:28:09,160 --> 00:28:13,000 The next step is going to be to actually try and dissolve it out 343 00:28:13,000 --> 00:28:17,080 and she would have chosen nitric acid - because what she would have 344 00:28:17,080 --> 00:28:23,960 known was that this could dissolve up pretty well any metallic ion. 345 00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:29,640 At this point, Marie Curie would really have been reaching 346 00:28:29,640 --> 00:28:31,200 a kind of branching point, 347 00:28:31,200 --> 00:28:34,520 in that there would have been the immediate question 348 00:28:34,520 --> 00:28:36,560 of where is the radioactivity? 349 00:28:36,560 --> 00:28:41,600 Is it actually soluble in the acid, or is it left behind? 350 00:28:41,600 --> 00:28:45,720 A quick check with the electrometer and she deduced - correctly - 351 00:28:45,720 --> 00:28:48,440 that her new element was in the liquid. 352 00:28:48,440 --> 00:28:49,960 But there was a problem. 353 00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:55,800 The pitchblende only contained a tiny quantity of this new element. 354 00:28:55,800 --> 00:29:00,120 # So I can't get enough of that stuff... # 355 00:29:00,120 --> 00:29:02,320 So to isolate it, she'd have to process 356 00:29:02,320 --> 00:29:06,000 tons of the stuff to find her needle in a haystack. 357 00:29:06,000 --> 00:29:08,840 # And I've tried and I've tried 358 00:29:08,840 --> 00:29:11,600 # But all night I have cried 359 00:29:11,600 --> 00:29:15,960 # No, I can't get enough of that stuff... # 360 00:29:15,960 --> 00:29:19,800 We're standing in the car park of what's now called the ESPCI, 361 00:29:19,800 --> 00:29:22,400 which is a big physics and chemistry institute in Paris. 362 00:29:22,400 --> 00:29:28,960 And behind me here there's a white line on the ground and that marks out one corner of a shed 363 00:29:28,960 --> 00:29:32,640 that Pierre and Marie Curie were given to work in. 364 00:29:34,080 --> 00:29:38,520 # Do you think that's it's smart to pump it through my heart 365 00:29:38,520 --> 00:29:43,040 # No, I can't get enough of that stuff... # 366 00:29:45,000 --> 00:29:47,040 The shed was run down - 367 00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:49,240 draughty and freezing cold in the winter, 368 00:29:49,240 --> 00:29:53,280 stifling hot under the glass in the summer. 369 00:29:53,280 --> 00:29:56,480 And this is where all the horse-carts of pitchblende 370 00:29:56,480 --> 00:30:00,560 would line up and deposit all their deliveries for Pierre 371 00:30:00,560 --> 00:30:02,600 and Marie Curie to refine. 372 00:30:06,280 --> 00:30:10,200 When you think about the kind of lab operations that she was doing, 373 00:30:10,200 --> 00:30:14,960 I mean a lot of it was really kind of repetitive, tedious drudgery 374 00:30:14,960 --> 00:30:18,640 and in a way you wonder what kept her going. 375 00:30:18,640 --> 00:30:22,960 And it's when you start looking at the notebooks that maybe one gets a kind of clue. 376 00:30:22,960 --> 00:30:27,240 And here on the 27th of June 1898 she starts with 377 00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:31,120 180 grams of powdered pitchblende. 378 00:30:31,120 --> 00:30:36,120 But at the end of half a page of description, suddenly there she is - 379 00:30:36,120 --> 00:30:41,680 very large letters saying "300 times more active than uranium". 380 00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:44,320 There was always, in a sense, this sort of little 381 00:30:44,320 --> 00:30:48,320 light at the end of the tunnel which was getting brighter and brighter. 382 00:30:51,400 --> 00:30:53,720 For four years she persevered, 383 00:30:53,720 --> 00:30:56,920 gradually getting closer to isolating her new element. 384 00:31:00,000 --> 00:31:02,840 And as she continued to concentrate the material, 385 00:31:02,840 --> 00:31:04,680 something wonderful unfolded. 386 00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:10,440 Before they started all the experimenting, Pierre had said to Marie, 387 00:31:10,440 --> 00:31:14,760 "I wonder what sort of colour our new product is going to be?" 388 00:31:14,760 --> 00:31:19,040 And he fantasised that it would be some sort of bluey-greeny 389 00:31:19,040 --> 00:31:21,720 magic colour. And that was indeed what happened. 390 00:31:21,720 --> 00:31:26,200 As the pitchblende became more and more concentrated as they went on purifying it, 391 00:31:26,200 --> 00:31:31,200 this sort of strange eerie blue-green glow could be seen all over the walls 392 00:31:31,200 --> 00:31:34,760 of the little shed that they were working in. 393 00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:37,120 MUSIC: "Clair de Lune" by Claude Debussy 394 00:31:48,440 --> 00:31:52,000 And they used to come here at night, and watch it and marvel at it 395 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:54,440 and they had a family at home, but for them, 396 00:31:54,440 --> 00:31:57,640 it was a scientific child that they had worked on together for so long 397 00:31:57,640 --> 00:32:00,520 and dreamt about it and finally here they were, they were producing it 398 00:32:00,520 --> 00:32:04,480 in this tiny dilapidated shed with a glass roof. 399 00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:11,440 And then you get to page 66 with a big underlined heading 400 00:32:11,440 --> 00:32:13,520 which says "Dosage" - determination. 401 00:32:13,520 --> 00:32:20,240 The 28th of March 1902 - she says 0.1179 grams. 402 00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:27,920 And then there's a quick calculation and at the end of it in really large letters there's "Ra = 225.9". 403 00:32:27,920 --> 00:32:30,760 She now knows the atomic mass 404 00:32:30,760 --> 00:32:35,680 and she really knows exactly where in the periodic table this fits. 405 00:32:35,680 --> 00:32:38,480 This is kind of the moment of triumph. 406 00:32:38,480 --> 00:32:42,080 It's the culmination of years of work. She's arrived. 407 00:32:45,400 --> 00:32:46,520 Congratulations. 408 00:32:48,840 --> 00:32:52,080 After four years of bone-crushingly hard work, 409 00:32:52,080 --> 00:32:57,040 Marie and Pierre had discovered a new element - radium. 410 00:33:03,200 --> 00:33:05,880 Its highly radioactive nature 411 00:33:05,880 --> 00:33:10,400 and eerie green glow set the world alight. 412 00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:13,080 MUSIC: "I Can't Get Enough" by the Dead Brothers 413 00:33:19,720 --> 00:33:24,360 # No, I can't get enough of that stuff 414 00:33:24,360 --> 00:33:27,000 # No, I can't get enough of that stuff... # 415 00:33:27,000 --> 00:33:29,800 I think nowadays we're terribly aware of how dangerous 416 00:33:29,800 --> 00:33:32,680 radiation of any kind can be. 417 00:33:32,680 --> 00:33:36,960 But when it first appeared, it seemed that this new miracle source of energy - 418 00:33:36,960 --> 00:33:40,240 it was a universal panacea - and it was being advertised for 419 00:33:40,240 --> 00:33:47,520 throat medicines, and cough cures, and you could buy radium toothpaste. 420 00:33:47,520 --> 00:33:51,600 It was sort of the new hope for the future. 421 00:33:51,600 --> 00:33:55,280 As the radium craze spread, some could still not believe 422 00:33:55,280 --> 00:33:58,880 the central role Marie had played in the discovery. 423 00:34:00,320 --> 00:34:03,640 There's this marvellous caricature that came out in Vanity Fair 424 00:34:03,640 --> 00:34:07,960 and there's Marie Curie and Pierre Curie in Man of the Year. 425 00:34:07,960 --> 00:34:11,320 And he's there and he's holding up this great big test-tube 426 00:34:11,320 --> 00:34:14,760 and the radium is shining out onto his forehead. 427 00:34:14,760 --> 00:34:17,360 and so his forehead is glowing with genius. 428 00:34:17,360 --> 00:34:19,960 And she's this little diminutive figure behind him 429 00:34:19,960 --> 00:34:22,920 with a hand on his shoulder, sort of peering over him, 430 00:34:22,920 --> 00:34:26,680 and you can almost hear her saying, "Oh, Pierre! You're so clever." 431 00:34:27,800 --> 00:34:31,440 So all the glory of the discovery is being attributed to him. 432 00:34:31,440 --> 00:34:34,920 Even though it was very much a collaborative piece of work. 433 00:34:38,280 --> 00:34:40,400 The years of toil had paid off. 434 00:34:40,400 --> 00:34:43,840 In 1903, the Nobel committee decided to honour 435 00:34:43,840 --> 00:34:45,840 the discoverers of radioactivity. 436 00:34:47,840 --> 00:34:51,320 But in a blatant show of sexism, the committee only nominated 437 00:34:51,320 --> 00:34:53,600 Henri Becquerel and Pierre. 438 00:34:53,600 --> 00:34:54,880 Marie was ignored. 439 00:34:58,840 --> 00:35:01,280 Pierre responded that if this nomination was serious 440 00:35:01,280 --> 00:35:06,120 he could not accept the prize unless Madame Curie's name was included. 441 00:35:06,120 --> 00:35:07,880 The committee was forced to relent, 442 00:35:07,880 --> 00:35:11,840 and all three shared the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics. 443 00:35:13,520 --> 00:35:18,160 "We have been awarded half of the Nobel prize. We are inundated with 444 00:35:18,160 --> 00:35:21,840 "letters and visits by journalists and photographers, and yesterday 445 00:35:21,840 --> 00:35:25,680 "an American wrote, asking permission to name a racehorse after me." 446 00:35:30,160 --> 00:35:34,200 The Curies were on their way to scientific stardom, but their health 447 00:35:34,200 --> 00:35:38,240 was beginning to suffer from the years of exposure to radiation. 448 00:35:52,200 --> 00:35:54,920 Pierre was feeling especially unwell as he left Marie 449 00:35:54,920 --> 00:35:59,800 on the 19th of April 1906 for a series of appointments in Paris. 450 00:36:05,880 --> 00:36:08,520 Pierre Curie's just had his lunch. 451 00:36:08,520 --> 00:36:13,760 He's in a hurry, he's got to get to the printer's down there. 452 00:36:13,760 --> 00:36:17,760 It was raining - he had an umbrella and he crossed the road. 453 00:36:17,760 --> 00:36:19,960 He slipped onto the cobbles 454 00:36:19,960 --> 00:36:24,560 and he saw these two horses in front of him and he grabbed the harness 455 00:36:24,560 --> 00:36:28,680 and tried to save himself but then he got thrown down on the ground. 456 00:36:28,680 --> 00:36:31,240 And for a moment it seemed that everything was fine. 457 00:36:31,240 --> 00:36:33,880 The carriage missed him but then, just at the last moment, 458 00:36:33,880 --> 00:36:37,560 the back wheels of the carriage swerved and they went right 459 00:36:37,560 --> 00:36:38,520 over his head. 460 00:36:40,280 --> 00:36:43,040 And it crushed his skull and he died immediately. 461 00:36:49,120 --> 00:36:51,360 "I put my head against the coffin. 462 00:36:51,360 --> 00:36:55,640 "And in great distress, I spoke to you. 463 00:36:55,640 --> 00:36:57,440 "I told you that I loved you 464 00:36:57,440 --> 00:37:00,600 "and that I had always loved you with all my heart." 465 00:37:00,600 --> 00:37:02,760 MUSIC: "Adieu Mon Coeur" by Edith Piaf 466 00:37:05,760 --> 00:37:12,200 # Adieu mon coeur 467 00:37:12,200 --> 00:37:19,520 # On te jette au malheur 468 00:37:19,520 --> 00:37:26,280 # Tu n'auras pas mes yeux 469 00:37:26,280 --> 00:37:28,840 # Pour mourir... # 470 00:37:28,840 --> 00:37:31,080 Slowly, Marie emerged from her pain. 471 00:37:34,640 --> 00:37:36,120 Seven months after his death, 472 00:37:36,120 --> 00:37:39,040 she took on Pierre's professorship at the Sorbonne, 473 00:37:39,040 --> 00:37:41,080 supported by her closest friends... 474 00:37:44,160 --> 00:37:47,440 ..one of whom, Paul Langevin, had been Pierre's student. 475 00:37:50,680 --> 00:37:53,720 He too was unhappy, trapped in a loveless marriage, 476 00:37:53,720 --> 00:37:57,040 so it was perhaps only natural that the two became close. 477 00:38:00,200 --> 00:38:01,920 So we're standing near the Sorbonne. 478 00:38:01,920 --> 00:38:05,880 Somewhere in the area, Paul Langevin rented a small apartment 479 00:38:05,880 --> 00:38:08,840 and he used to meet Marie Curie there and this is where they 480 00:38:08,840 --> 00:38:13,640 conducted their affair and where their love relationship blossomed. 481 00:38:13,640 --> 00:38:16,400 They were together when Marie's name was put forward for 482 00:38:16,400 --> 00:38:20,520 a second Nobel prize, in Chemistry, in recognition of her work 483 00:38:20,520 --> 00:38:24,560 isolating radium and a second new element, polonium. 484 00:38:24,560 --> 00:38:26,600 To this day, she is the only person 485 00:38:26,600 --> 00:38:29,680 to win two Nobel prizes in two different sciences. 486 00:38:31,920 --> 00:38:35,560 And so it was that she found herself sharing the wonderful news 487 00:38:35,560 --> 00:38:38,440 with Paul at the Solvay conference. 488 00:38:38,440 --> 00:38:41,280 She'd made it to the top table of physics. 489 00:38:49,560 --> 00:38:52,400 But her union with Paul was doomed. 490 00:38:52,400 --> 00:38:55,080 Although in an extraordinary twist, 491 00:38:55,080 --> 00:38:58,280 this would not be the last Curie-Langevin relationship. 492 00:38:59,920 --> 00:39:03,200 Because two generations later, Marie's granddaughter 493 00:39:03,200 --> 00:39:05,360 married Paul's grandson. 494 00:39:05,360 --> 00:39:08,920 And to this day, her grandmother's affair remains a raw subject. 495 00:39:10,480 --> 00:39:12,760 It was a big problem. 496 00:39:12,760 --> 00:39:17,800 There was all the campaigns in the newspapers. 497 00:39:17,800 --> 00:39:22,080 It was not only the Polish woman, 498 00:39:22,080 --> 00:39:26,960 but woman taking the husband in a family 499 00:39:26,960 --> 00:39:30,680 with four children and so on, and so on. 500 00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:34,680 And there was a publication of letters. 501 00:39:39,320 --> 00:39:43,560 When his wife disclosed these supposed love letters, 502 00:39:43,560 --> 00:39:46,880 we think they were real, but we don't know all the details. 503 00:39:49,440 --> 00:39:54,640 My feeling is that really they were falsified. 504 00:39:54,640 --> 00:39:58,840 But nobody took care of this point. 505 00:39:58,840 --> 00:40:01,480 She was a widow, so she was not married 506 00:40:01,480 --> 00:40:03,320 so she was not adulterous in any way. 507 00:40:03,320 --> 00:40:08,720 The problem is, for her, this affair showed that she was a sexual being. 508 00:40:08,720 --> 00:40:11,240 And the reason why that was so damning for her 509 00:40:11,240 --> 00:40:14,640 in ways it would not have been for a man was because it showed that 510 00:40:14,640 --> 00:40:19,200 her science was not nearly as saintly as everyone had made it to look. 511 00:40:19,200 --> 00:40:20,960 Because of course, a woman's sexuality 512 00:40:20,960 --> 00:40:24,640 and her science were somehow seen as one and the same. 513 00:40:24,640 --> 00:40:27,480 I mean, you know, when Einstein had his affairs, 514 00:40:27,480 --> 00:40:30,600 no-one looked at what he was doing in his private life 515 00:40:30,600 --> 00:40:36,440 and what he was doing in his science life as related in any way. 516 00:40:36,440 --> 00:40:40,880 Whether the letters were fake or not, the effect was devastating. 517 00:40:40,880 --> 00:40:42,200 For the French tabloids, 518 00:40:42,200 --> 00:40:45,960 the story of a famous female immigrant ruining the marriage 519 00:40:45,960 --> 00:40:50,600 of a prestigious Frenchman perfectly suited their nationalistic agenda. 520 00:40:50,600 --> 00:40:52,800 She was vilified, hounded 521 00:40:52,800 --> 00:40:55,560 and abandoned by many of her previous supporters. 522 00:40:58,360 --> 00:41:02,640 It was a very difficult period for all the family 523 00:41:02,640 --> 00:41:07,000 and the children in particular. 524 00:41:07,000 --> 00:41:11,360 Somehow, Marie had to find the strength to carry on. 525 00:41:11,360 --> 00:41:14,840 The turning point came when the Nobel committee once again 526 00:41:14,840 --> 00:41:17,840 questioned her suitability for the prize in Chemistry. 527 00:41:31,680 --> 00:41:37,400 Incredulous, Marie rediscovered the inner steel that had got her so far. 528 00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:39,440 She wrote back - 529 00:41:39,440 --> 00:41:42,040 "I believe there is no connection between my scientific work 530 00:41:42,040 --> 00:41:44,160 "and the facts of private life. 531 00:41:44,160 --> 00:41:47,840 "I cannot accept the idea in principle that the appreciation of 532 00:41:47,840 --> 00:41:54,440 "the value of scientific work should be influenced by libel and slander." 533 00:41:54,440 --> 00:41:58,480 A harder, prouder, more aggressive Madame Curie emerged, 534 00:41:58,480 --> 00:42:01,240 who in her address to the Nobel prize ceremony, 535 00:42:01,240 --> 00:42:06,160 firmly established her ownership of the field of radioactivity. 536 00:42:06,160 --> 00:42:08,240 "The discoveries of radium 537 00:42:08,240 --> 00:42:12,200 "and polonium were made by Pierre Curie in collaboration with me. 538 00:42:12,200 --> 00:42:15,840 "The chemical work aimed at isolating radium was carried out 539 00:42:15,840 --> 00:42:17,200 "especially by me." 540 00:42:22,040 --> 00:42:27,760 With this newfound determination, she set about rebuilding her life. 541 00:42:27,760 --> 00:42:30,000 And though she would never find love again, 542 00:42:30,000 --> 00:42:33,000 she would see her reputation shift once more, 543 00:42:33,000 --> 00:42:35,520 as she took on an almost legendary status. 544 00:42:50,880 --> 00:42:54,160 Marie decided to take charge of her own destiny. 545 00:42:54,160 --> 00:43:00,160 Rather than work in someone else's lab, she would build her own. 546 00:43:00,160 --> 00:43:04,920 She designed her Radium Institute to be a state-of-the-art laboratory 547 00:43:04,920 --> 00:43:06,880 built around a charming little square 548 00:43:06,880 --> 00:43:10,440 where she could indulge her love of gardening. 549 00:43:10,440 --> 00:43:16,480 Here she planted many of the trees and roses that grow to this day. 550 00:43:16,480 --> 00:43:22,160 But her peace did not last, because on the 3rd of August 1914... 551 00:43:25,840 --> 00:43:27,960 ..Germany declared war on France. 552 00:43:31,320 --> 00:43:36,200 Fearful of a German invasion of Paris, many fled the capital. 553 00:43:36,200 --> 00:43:39,240 Marie however stayed, 554 00:43:39,240 --> 00:43:42,320 though all work on her new institute stopped. 555 00:43:49,400 --> 00:43:54,280 As the war began to bite, Marie learned that lives were being lost 556 00:43:54,280 --> 00:43:58,160 because the entire French army had only one X-ray station. 557 00:44:02,960 --> 00:44:06,440 So in a moment of organizational brilliance, 558 00:44:06,440 --> 00:44:10,320 she conceived the idea of mobile X-ray units - 559 00:44:10,320 --> 00:44:13,760 small cars adapted to carry their own generator 560 00:44:13,760 --> 00:44:17,840 and lightweight X-ray equipment. 561 00:44:17,840 --> 00:44:22,280 To help the war effort, Marie taught herself to drive, 562 00:44:22,280 --> 00:44:26,120 and took the so-called Petites Curies to wherever they were needed, 563 00:44:26,120 --> 00:44:30,280 where she'd unload the equipment, hook up the generator 564 00:44:30,280 --> 00:44:32,880 and activate the X-ray machine, 565 00:44:32,880 --> 00:44:38,120 with little or no protection from the rays for herself. 566 00:44:38,120 --> 00:44:41,320 But she desperately needed more technicians, 567 00:44:41,320 --> 00:44:44,000 so she brought her elder daughter to the front. 568 00:44:47,600 --> 00:44:53,160 In the 17-year-old Irene, Marie had found a new collaborator, 569 00:44:53,160 --> 00:44:55,600 a relationship that would last until her death. 570 00:45:02,920 --> 00:45:05,960 By the end of the Great War in 1918, 571 00:45:05,960 --> 00:45:10,440 Marie's X-ray units had treated over a million wounded soldiers. 572 00:45:10,440 --> 00:45:13,320 And with the subsequent treaty of Versailles, 573 00:45:13,320 --> 00:45:18,360 Poland was given its independence after 123 years of occupation. 574 00:45:18,360 --> 00:45:22,200 Marie had lived to see her mother-country free at last. 575 00:45:28,520 --> 00:45:31,560 The French government never formally recognised her efforts 576 00:45:31,560 --> 00:45:36,400 during the war, but social attitudes towards Marie did begin to soften. 577 00:45:41,000 --> 00:45:44,160 She returned to the Radium Institute, where she continued 578 00:45:44,160 --> 00:45:49,240 her radioactivity research here in her laboratory. 579 00:45:49,240 --> 00:45:53,920 Marie had never taken out patents on any of her discoveries, so money was 580 00:45:53,920 --> 00:45:59,200 a constant worry and she was running short of her precious radium. 581 00:45:59,200 --> 00:46:03,880 That's why in 1920 - perhaps sensing an opportunity - 582 00:46:03,880 --> 00:46:07,560 she agreed to meet one "Missy" Mattingly Meloney, an American 583 00:46:07,560 --> 00:46:10,960 journalist who had come all the way to Paris to interview her. 584 00:46:13,800 --> 00:46:16,360 Over the course of the interview, 585 00:46:16,360 --> 00:46:17,880 she comes to discover that 586 00:46:17,880 --> 00:46:20,720 Madame Curie, who had discovered radium, 587 00:46:20,720 --> 00:46:24,600 did not actually have a gram of it to run her experiments. 588 00:46:24,600 --> 00:46:29,480 So Meloney decides, "Well, I'm going to start this big radium campaign in the United States," 589 00:46:29,480 --> 00:46:33,720 and she's the perfect person to do this because of course she's very well-connected. 590 00:46:33,720 --> 00:46:36,720 And indeed she comes back to the United States and within months, 591 00:46:36,720 --> 00:46:40,560 she raises well over the $100,000 she needs for this gram of radium. 592 00:46:40,560 --> 00:46:45,520 MUSIC: "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin 593 00:46:45,520 --> 00:46:48,520 And so, on the 11th of May 1921, 594 00:46:48,520 --> 00:46:54,240 Marie arrived in New York's Hudson Bay to collect more radium. 595 00:46:54,240 --> 00:46:56,920 It was still incredibly rare 596 00:46:56,920 --> 00:47:02,280 and if she was to ensure her institute's future, she needed more. 597 00:47:02,280 --> 00:47:05,320 Accompanied by her daughters, she'd crossed the Atlantic 598 00:47:05,320 --> 00:47:09,400 on the Titanic's sister ship, the Olympic. 599 00:47:09,400 --> 00:47:12,320 She was in her suite and, uh, 600 00:47:12,320 --> 00:47:13,760 Marie Mattingly Meloney, Missy, 601 00:47:13,760 --> 00:47:19,160 warned her that she was going to have to meet some reporters 602 00:47:19,160 --> 00:47:22,720 and that there were photographers and she took a little while 603 00:47:22,720 --> 00:47:26,120 then she finally came out and she was interviewed 604 00:47:26,120 --> 00:47:27,920 by a battery of reporters. 605 00:47:27,920 --> 00:47:32,840 This is where she supposedly said that radium could cure 606 00:47:32,840 --> 00:47:36,640 all diseases, even the very deep tumours. 607 00:47:38,520 --> 00:47:41,760 Marie Curie's name was increasingly being linked to a radical 608 00:47:41,760 --> 00:47:47,040 cancer treatment that she and Pierre had developed. 609 00:47:47,040 --> 00:47:50,960 For cancers that were readily accessible, say on the face, 610 00:47:50,960 --> 00:47:56,200 tiny flecks of radium would be carefully positioned over the tumour. 611 00:47:56,200 --> 00:47:59,040 The radiation would kill the cancer cells. 612 00:47:59,040 --> 00:48:01,320 And if the patient was lucky, 613 00:48:01,320 --> 00:48:04,320 their healthy cells would in time repair the lesion. 614 00:48:08,120 --> 00:48:11,440 Marie herself had little to do with cancer treatment. 615 00:48:11,440 --> 00:48:17,080 Her focus remained purely on radioactivity research. 616 00:48:17,080 --> 00:48:22,560 But Missy was a master of spin. She knew that selling a dedicated 617 00:48:22,560 --> 00:48:27,360 scientist to the American public would be tough. 618 00:48:27,360 --> 00:48:29,720 She needs to make her look likeable. 619 00:48:29,720 --> 00:48:32,160 But that also means making her look appropriate. 620 00:48:32,160 --> 00:48:33,520 She has to depict her 621 00:48:33,520 --> 00:48:37,600 not as scientist at all but as this maternal figure, 622 00:48:37,600 --> 00:48:40,680 who of course didn't actually discover radium because she was 623 00:48:40,680 --> 00:48:45,960 doing science for science's sake like men do, she was doing it because 624 00:48:45,960 --> 00:48:50,040 of course she wanted to rid humanity of cancer, like any good mother 625 00:48:50,040 --> 00:48:53,040 would want to and this is really why she discovered radium. And so this 626 00:48:53,040 --> 00:48:58,360 is the publicity that Curie walks into when she comes to New York in 1921. 627 00:48:58,360 --> 00:49:00,680 MUSIC: "Freddie Freeloader" by Miles Davis 628 00:49:07,280 --> 00:49:09,720 Marie began a series of public engagements 629 00:49:09,720 --> 00:49:14,880 that Missy had laid on that would last for eight weeks. 630 00:49:14,880 --> 00:49:17,360 "The programme seemed very intimidating. 631 00:49:17,360 --> 00:49:21,680 "It was assumed that I would not only attend a ceremony at the White House 632 00:49:21,680 --> 00:49:26,000 "but also visit many universities and colleges in several towns. 633 00:49:26,000 --> 00:49:29,520 "Some of these institutions had contributed to the fund. 634 00:49:29,520 --> 00:49:33,120 "All desired to offer me honours." 635 00:49:33,120 --> 00:49:37,880 The timing of her coming to the United States was not a coincidence. 636 00:49:37,880 --> 00:49:40,880 Women had just won suffrage in the United States in 1920. 637 00:49:40,880 --> 00:49:44,120 They're just starting to get the right to vote in this country. 638 00:49:44,120 --> 00:49:48,120 So she's thinking she's a very good role model for American women. 639 00:49:55,240 --> 00:50:00,120 Marie Curie began her US tour here in the city of New York. 640 00:50:00,120 --> 00:50:04,120 And it was immediately clear that amongst American women, 641 00:50:04,120 --> 00:50:06,000 she had become a star. 642 00:50:11,480 --> 00:50:16,120 We're here in Carnegie Hall and I'm thinking back to May 18th, 1921, 643 00:50:16,120 --> 00:50:18,160 when Marie Curie was honoured. 644 00:50:18,160 --> 00:50:19,080 APPLAUSE 645 00:50:24,480 --> 00:50:28,120 We know that when Marie Curie entered, there was 646 00:50:28,120 --> 00:50:34,000 thunderous applause and the applause took maybe five minutes to die down. 647 00:50:34,000 --> 00:50:37,120 The event was sponsored by American university women 648 00:50:37,120 --> 00:50:41,280 and it was a celebration of Curie but it was also a celebration of, really, 649 00:50:41,280 --> 00:50:44,040 higher education for women in the United States. 650 00:50:46,560 --> 00:50:52,280 According to newspaper accounts, there were supposedly 3,500 women in attendance. 651 00:50:52,280 --> 00:50:56,880 The colleges decorated the hall with their banners. 652 00:50:56,880 --> 00:51:00,240 It must have been very colourful. Certainly very exciting. 653 00:51:05,680 --> 00:51:08,760 Marie was an instant hit. 654 00:51:08,760 --> 00:51:11,360 And all the while as she toured the States, 655 00:51:11,360 --> 00:51:17,080 Missy worked hard to protect the legend she was creating. 656 00:51:17,080 --> 00:51:20,520 Everybody was very good about not mentioning the scandal, 657 00:51:20,520 --> 00:51:23,840 the sex scandal in Paris. And of course, remember, this was 658 00:51:23,840 --> 00:51:29,440 Meloney making very clear, "When you cover her, do not discuss this." 659 00:51:29,440 --> 00:51:34,200 Exhausted, Marie finally arrived in Washington 660 00:51:34,200 --> 00:51:37,000 for her last appointment at the White House itself. 661 00:51:38,960 --> 00:51:43,680 "It was a deeply moving ceremony in all of its simplicity. 662 00:51:43,680 --> 00:51:47,160 "It comprised a short presentation by the French ambassador, 663 00:51:47,160 --> 00:51:50,840 "a speech by Missy Meloney on behalf of the American women, 664 00:51:50,840 --> 00:51:53,240 "and then the address of President Harding." 665 00:51:53,240 --> 00:51:57,760 MUSIC: "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin 666 00:51:57,760 --> 00:52:02,400 At last, she received what she'd come to America for. 667 00:52:02,400 --> 00:52:08,120 When Harding hands her the ceremonial box of radium, he says 668 00:52:08,120 --> 00:52:14,160 "This is a gift from the American people," and he even goes so far as to say, you know, 669 00:52:14,160 --> 00:52:17,400 "We are just in awe of you, not only for your science but 670 00:52:17,400 --> 00:52:21,360 "because you did all this, and still were the perfect wife and mother." 671 00:52:25,320 --> 00:52:28,480 Marie returned to France with her name restored 672 00:52:28,480 --> 00:52:31,400 and the future of her beloved Institute secure. 673 00:52:36,560 --> 00:52:39,560 She would return again to America to collect more 674 00:52:39,560 --> 00:52:45,040 radium for a second Radium Institute in Warsaw she was helping to establish. 675 00:52:45,040 --> 00:52:48,360 But it would take an even greater toll on her failing health. 676 00:52:55,880 --> 00:53:00,520 Soon after she came home, she wrote to Missy. 677 00:53:00,520 --> 00:53:05,080 "My very dear friend, your letter distressed me. 678 00:53:05,080 --> 00:53:07,800 "I did not know that you had a bad accident. 679 00:53:07,800 --> 00:53:12,040 "I too had troubles, a kind of general disease which obliged me 680 00:53:12,040 --> 00:53:16,440 "to take a very strict diet, probably to last for the future." 681 00:53:19,120 --> 00:53:21,200 After years of ill health, 682 00:53:21,200 --> 00:53:25,840 her family helped nurse Marie during her final months. 683 00:53:25,840 --> 00:53:28,480 Eve really comes to terms with her mother later in life. 684 00:53:28,480 --> 00:53:31,840 She's the one that really cares for her in her final days. 685 00:53:31,840 --> 00:53:34,640 And I think that there's a sort of reconciliation, but it was 686 00:53:34,640 --> 00:53:39,560 a very um...I mean, the relationship between them was torn for some time. 687 00:53:39,560 --> 00:53:42,760 It took her mother dying, I think, 688 00:53:42,760 --> 00:53:46,160 and her being there to take care of her for them to sort of reconcile. 689 00:53:50,880 --> 00:53:57,960 On the 4th of July 1934, Marie Curie died, aged 67, 690 00:53:57,960 --> 00:54:00,000 with Eve by her side. 691 00:54:13,960 --> 00:54:19,240 Her doctor gave the cause of death as aplastic pernicious anaemia. 692 00:54:19,240 --> 00:54:24,240 Her bone marrow had been injured by the long accumulation of radiation. 693 00:54:24,240 --> 00:54:27,600 So it seemed her child, radium, had killed her. 694 00:54:31,040 --> 00:54:35,040 She was buried in this cemetery just outside Paris, 695 00:54:35,040 --> 00:54:37,320 where she shared a grave with Pierre. 696 00:54:42,040 --> 00:54:44,840 And here they lay together for over sixty years. 697 00:54:47,360 --> 00:54:50,400 Until one spring day in 1995, 698 00:54:50,400 --> 00:54:56,640 when radioprotection expert Jean-Luc Pasquier came to examine her remains. 699 00:54:56,640 --> 00:54:58,880 HE SPEAKS FRENCH 700 00:55:10,680 --> 00:55:15,280 Since the half-life of radium is 1,600 years, 701 00:55:15,280 --> 00:55:18,800 they were worried that Marie was still radioactive, 702 00:55:18,800 --> 00:55:22,800 because they were about to move her body. 703 00:55:57,280 --> 00:56:01,280 This surprised everyone, because if the myth was correct 704 00:56:01,280 --> 00:56:04,920 and radium exposure had made her a martyr to her science, 705 00:56:04,920 --> 00:56:09,200 her remains should still exceed today's safe levels. 706 00:56:09,200 --> 00:56:13,840 So it led the team to speculate that something else had caused her premature demise. 707 00:56:45,960 --> 00:56:50,560 If X-rays killed Marie, then she was a different kind of martyr. 708 00:56:52,240 --> 00:56:56,040 Her life ended prematurely - like so many others - 709 00:56:56,040 --> 00:56:58,520 as a result of her efforts in the Great War. 710 00:57:04,600 --> 00:57:07,640 A few days later, here in the heart of Paris, 711 00:57:07,640 --> 00:57:10,920 the Curies were given a full state funeral. 712 00:57:10,920 --> 00:57:14,960 # Adieu mon coeur... # 713 00:57:16,480 --> 00:57:21,320 This square and the street down there are absolutely packed with people, 714 00:57:21,320 --> 00:57:23,560 and there's a big white carpet coming all the way 715 00:57:23,560 --> 00:57:28,600 up the street, across the square and up the steps into the Pantheon. 716 00:57:28,600 --> 00:57:31,000 # ..mes yeux 717 00:57:31,000 --> 00:57:35,360 # Pour mourir... # 718 00:57:35,360 --> 00:57:40,560 They'd made it into France's national mausoleum. 719 00:57:40,560 --> 00:57:45,520 # Adieu mon coeur... # 720 00:57:45,520 --> 00:57:49,640 In a sense, it was a final journey for Pierre and Marie Curie 721 00:57:49,640 --> 00:57:54,000 but for Marie Curie in particular, it was a very momentous occasion, 722 00:57:54,000 --> 00:57:58,240 because she was the first woman to be buried in the Pantheon 723 00:57:58,240 --> 00:58:01,680 as a tribute to her own individual achievements. 724 00:58:06,120 --> 00:58:10,520 At last, France had made it up to Marie Curie. 725 00:58:10,520 --> 00:58:15,240 This brave, brilliant Polish scientist, so cruelly 726 00:58:15,240 --> 00:58:19,960 shamed in life, had received her adopted country's highest honour. 727 00:58:26,080 --> 00:58:28,280 # Autrefois tu respirais le soleil d'or 728 00:58:32,560 --> 00:58:34,200 # Tu marchais sur des tresors 729 00:58:39,720 --> 00:58:40,920 # On etait vagabonds 730 00:58:43,960 --> 00:58:46,920 # On aimait les chansons C'a fini dans les prisons... # 731 00:58:49,600 --> 00:58:52,280 Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd