0:00:04 > 0:00:09In 1927 the world's greatest scientists assembled in Belgium,
0:00:09 > 0:00:13to thrash out some of the most fundamental problems in physics.
0:00:16 > 0:00:2129 showed up, 17 of whom would become Nobel prize-winners,
0:00:21 > 0:00:24but one of their number could trump them all.
0:00:25 > 0:00:29Someone who'd bagged two Nobel prizes in two different sciences.
0:00:30 > 0:00:36In a man's world, a woman had broken through - Madame Marie Curie.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43This is the story of Marie Curie's life - the adventures
0:00:43 > 0:00:49of a woman who refused to conform to the social mores of her time.
0:00:49 > 0:00:53A woman who could pop in on presidents, and holidayed with Einstein...
0:00:56 > 0:00:58..who once trod the boards on Broadway...
0:01:02 > 0:01:06..ran mobile X-ray units on the front as the French battled the Hun...
0:01:08 > 0:01:11..who even had duels fought over her.
0:01:11 > 0:01:15And wonderfully, for such a fiercely private woman,
0:01:15 > 0:01:19we've been left a unique view of her inner struggles in life and love.
0:01:22 > 0:01:25Because in the decades that followed her death,
0:01:25 > 0:01:28her family released her most intimate letters.
0:01:28 > 0:01:30"I am impatient to see you,
0:01:30 > 0:01:34"much more than I am uneasy about the difficulties to come.
0:01:34 > 0:01:37"It will be good to hear your voice again and see your dear eyes.
0:01:37 > 0:01:43"Until Saturday, my darling, I will not stop thinking of you."
0:01:46 > 0:01:49The letters reveal the real Marie -
0:01:49 > 0:01:53a woman full of passion, an obsessive genius,
0:01:53 > 0:01:56whose life was beset by tragedy and scandal.
0:02:14 > 0:02:19In every great life, there's a moment that comes to define you.
0:02:19 > 0:02:22A moment of crisis that forces you to dig deep
0:02:22 > 0:02:24and establish who you truly are.
0:02:27 > 0:02:32For Marie Curie, that moment came in the autumn of 1911,
0:02:32 > 0:02:35some five years after the tragic death of her husband, Pierre Curie.
0:02:39 > 0:02:42She was at the world's first international meeting
0:02:42 > 0:02:44of physicists and chemists.
0:02:44 > 0:02:46An historic, invitation-only event,
0:02:46 > 0:02:49which would become known as the Solvay Conference.
0:02:51 > 0:02:53And she was happy -
0:02:53 > 0:02:56perhaps because she had just received a telegram confirming
0:02:56 > 0:02:58she had won a SECOND Nobel prize.
0:03:00 > 0:03:03Or perhaps because she was there with her lover.
0:03:07 > 0:03:10Paul Langevin, he was a physicist, and at some point,
0:03:10 > 0:03:13he was actually a student of Pierre Curie's.
0:03:13 > 0:03:15And he had worked with the Curies.
0:03:15 > 0:03:17I mean, certainly both of them knew him.
0:03:17 > 0:03:22And he was a physicist of renown - everyone knew who he was.
0:03:22 > 0:03:25Most of what we know of their affair comes from the letters that
0:03:25 > 0:03:27Marie wrote to Paul.
0:03:27 > 0:03:32"The instinct which led us to each other was very powerful.
0:03:32 > 0:03:36"I believe that we could derive everything from it - good work
0:03:36 > 0:03:40"in common, a good solid friendship, courage for life and even
0:03:40 > 0:03:46"beautiful children of love in the most beautiful meaning of the word."
0:03:51 > 0:03:54Jeanne Langevin, Paul's wife,
0:03:54 > 0:03:57understandably was rather jealous and unhappy about this.
0:03:57 > 0:04:01She was a really intense, rather violent woman.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04According to a witness, Madame Langevin accosted Marie
0:04:04 > 0:04:09in the street, where she threatened to kill her if she didn't leave France.
0:04:11 > 0:04:15Marie implored Paul to end the marriage.
0:04:15 > 0:04:19"When I know you are with her, my nights are atrocious. I can't sleep.
0:04:19 > 0:04:23"I wake up with a sensation of fever and I can't work."
0:04:27 > 0:04:30Marie's downfall came when pictures were published of Paul
0:04:30 > 0:04:32and her at the Solvay conference.
0:04:32 > 0:04:37Enraged, Madame Langevin decided to act.
0:04:37 > 0:04:40One day, when she was sure Paul Langevin wasn't there,
0:04:40 > 0:04:43she somehow managed to persuade someone
0:04:43 > 0:04:47to break into the apartment, where this person found a cache of very
0:04:47 > 0:04:52intimate love letters between Marie Curie and Paul Langevin.
0:04:52 > 0:04:55Marie came back from her conference to discover that
0:04:55 > 0:04:58parts of the letters had been published in the press.
0:04:58 > 0:05:01This had suddenly become a very, very public affair.
0:05:08 > 0:05:11The press ran a series of scurrilous claims against her.
0:05:25 > 0:05:28This venomous publicity stirred up an angry mob,
0:05:28 > 0:05:31who surrounded her home and threw stones at the windows.
0:05:31 > 0:05:32GLASS SMASHING
0:05:36 > 0:05:41The whole affair spiralled into a farcical nightmare.
0:05:41 > 0:05:45For Langevin, the final straw came when he read an article
0:05:45 > 0:05:50in a newspaper accusing him of hiding behind a Polish woman's skirts.
0:05:50 > 0:05:54And for him, that was such an insult to his French dignity
0:05:54 > 0:05:57that he challenged the editor of the paper to a duel.
0:06:04 > 0:06:07They met at exactly 11 o'clock in the morning.
0:06:07 > 0:06:10They paced out 25 yards.
0:06:12 > 0:06:14They raised their pistols at each other
0:06:14 > 0:06:18and the editor reported afterwards that he looked at Langevin
0:06:18 > 0:06:21and he thought, "I can't possibly kill this man.
0:06:21 > 0:06:24"He's one of France's greatest scientists!" so he pointed
0:06:24 > 0:06:25his pistol to the ground.
0:06:25 > 0:06:27So then there was Langevin, and he thought,
0:06:27 > 0:06:30"I can't possibly shoot this man. He's not pointing a gun at me,"
0:06:30 > 0:06:34so he put his gun down as well.
0:06:35 > 0:06:38And that was the end of the duel between them.
0:06:40 > 0:06:42Paul Langevin returned to his wife with honour restored
0:06:42 > 0:06:47and reputation intact.
0:06:47 > 0:06:48Marie fared less well.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53Publicly humiliated, she'd lost her companion
0:06:53 > 0:06:55and the controversy meant she couldn't continue
0:06:55 > 0:06:59the scientific work that had brought her so much happiness.
0:06:59 > 0:07:01She fled into hiding with her daughters,
0:07:01 > 0:07:04and entered a deep depression.
0:07:04 > 0:07:08The story of how Marie Curie ascended to become the world's most
0:07:08 > 0:07:15famous female scientist, how she lost it all and subsequently achieved redemption
0:07:15 > 0:07:19is one of the greatest sagas in the history of science.
0:07:19 > 0:07:24And it starts not in Paris, but a thousand miles away to the east.
0:07:35 > 0:07:40Marie Curie was born in obscurity, in a different country
0:07:40 > 0:07:45and under a completely different name.
0:07:45 > 0:07:48This is the museum of Maria Sklodowska-Curie.
0:07:48 > 0:07:53In 1867, on the seventh of November, it was the place where
0:07:53 > 0:07:55Maria Sklodowska was born.
0:07:57 > 0:08:01From the beginning, Maria, as she'd been christened,
0:08:01 > 0:08:03had to face prejudice every day.
0:08:03 > 0:08:09Marie Sklodowska was born when Poland was divided by three countries -
0:08:09 > 0:08:11Russia, Prussia and Austria.
0:08:12 > 0:08:17And in that time, Warsaw was occupated by Russians.
0:08:17 > 0:08:21It was forbidden to talk in Polish, to learn Polish history.
0:08:21 > 0:08:23To make Polish science.
0:08:26 > 0:08:30Indeed, ever since Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo in 1815,
0:08:30 > 0:08:35Warsaw had been under the rule of Tsarist Russia.
0:08:35 > 0:08:38The occupiers set about a cultural cleansing,
0:08:38 > 0:08:40banning Polish folk songs and dancing.
0:08:46 > 0:08:48Russian became the state language.
0:08:53 > 0:08:55So it was in private that her father,
0:08:55 > 0:08:59Professor Wladyslaw Sklodowski, sparked her passion for science.
0:09:02 > 0:09:05At home he kept a cabinet full of scientific apparatus that fascinated
0:09:05 > 0:09:11the young Maria, who by the age of four was already a confident reader.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19Later the same year, her mother began to lose weight
0:09:19 > 0:09:23and would cough constantly - a sign that tuberculosis was taking hold.
0:09:26 > 0:09:28And of course doctors said, you know,
0:09:28 > 0:09:30you have to stay of clear your daughter
0:09:30 > 0:09:34and so she didn't have a lot of physical affection from her mother.
0:09:36 > 0:09:39Her mother finally succumbed to the disease in 1878
0:09:39 > 0:09:41when Maria was just 12 years old.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45"For many years, we all felt weighing on us
0:09:45 > 0:09:48"the loss of the one who had been the soul of the house."
0:09:50 > 0:09:54So for most of her formative years, her father raised her as best
0:09:54 > 0:09:58he could as a poorly paid teacher.
0:09:58 > 0:10:01She adored him and it was from him that she
0:10:01 > 0:10:05inherited her questioning nature and her life-long love of science.
0:10:07 > 0:10:09EASTERN EUROPEAN FOLK MUSIC
0:10:12 > 0:10:18Maria left school aged 15 with a gold medal for topping her year.
0:10:18 > 0:10:20But Warsaw University was closed to women,
0:10:20 > 0:10:25so she was forced to give up her passion for science.
0:10:25 > 0:10:32She abandoned her studies and left to join her relatives in the country.
0:10:32 > 0:10:33EASTERN EUROPEAN FOLK SINGING
0:10:43 > 0:10:47"We do everything that comes to our minds. Sometimes we sleep
0:10:47 > 0:10:52"at night, sometimes during the day. We dance, and in all, we frolic
0:10:52 > 0:10:56"so much that sometimes we might deserve to be locked up in a mental home..."
0:11:03 > 0:11:07For most girls of her age, finding a good husband was the next step.
0:11:07 > 0:11:12But she and her older sister Bronia would break the convention.
0:11:12 > 0:11:13MUSIC STOPS
0:11:13 > 0:11:14Whoo! Bravo!
0:11:14 > 0:11:15APPLAUSE
0:11:15 > 0:11:18They concocted an audacious plan that would allow them
0:11:18 > 0:11:21both to get a university education.
0:11:27 > 0:11:30Maria would remain in the Polish countryside,
0:11:30 > 0:11:32to seek work as a governess.
0:11:32 > 0:11:38She would support Bronia as she left to study medicine at the Sorbonne University in Paris.
0:11:38 > 0:11:41In return, Bronia would later help Maria to join her there.
0:11:45 > 0:11:51And so it was that in the winter of 1886, Maria arrived at the family home of a wealthy beetroot farmer...
0:11:54 > 0:11:58..the ruins of which still stand on land owned by Teresa Kaczorowska.
0:12:00 > 0:12:02Almost at once, Maria felt at home.
0:12:54 > 0:12:58Maria taught the Zorawski children upstairs in her little room.
0:12:58 > 0:13:01And it was here that one day she met their eldest brother,
0:13:01 > 0:13:04a meeting that threatened to derail all her plans.
0:14:04 > 0:14:09The rejection of the Zorawski family sent her into a depression
0:14:09 > 0:14:14that saw her abandon all thoughts of leaving Poland.
0:14:14 > 0:14:16"I have been stupid,
0:14:16 > 0:14:22"I am stupid and I shall remain stupid all the days of my life.
0:14:22 > 0:14:25"I dreamed of Paris as of redemption,
0:14:25 > 0:14:29"but the hope of going there left me a long time ago."
0:14:33 > 0:14:38Heartbroken, Maria returned to her ageing father in Warsaw.
0:14:38 > 0:14:42And here she may have remained in obscurity, if it wasn't for
0:14:42 > 0:14:48what went on in this building, the Museum of Industry and Agriculture,
0:14:48 > 0:14:52because behind its impressive facade was a secret Polish laboratory.
0:14:56 > 0:15:01This is a very important place in Maria's scientific life. When she was
0:15:01 > 0:15:09about 18-19 years old she started to learn here chemical analysis.
0:15:10 > 0:15:14The lab was part of the so-called Flying University,
0:15:14 > 0:15:17which moved from location to location around Warsaw
0:15:17 > 0:15:20to avoid the suspicion of the Russians.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24Here, all Poles could advance their education, be they male or female.
0:15:27 > 0:15:31"I tried to reproduce various experiments described in treatises
0:15:31 > 0:15:35"on physics and chemistry. From time to time a little unhoped-for success
0:15:35 > 0:15:40"would encourage me, and at others I sank into despair.
0:15:40 > 0:15:46"But on the whole, I discovered my taste for experimental research during these first trials."
0:15:57 > 0:16:03Marie had rediscovered her appetite for science. She wrote to Bronia.
0:16:03 > 0:16:06"If my coming is just possible, tell me,
0:16:06 > 0:16:09"and tell me what entrance examinations I must pass,
0:16:09 > 0:16:13"and what is the latest date at which I can register as a student.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16"I am so nervous at the prospect of my departure that
0:16:16 > 0:16:18"I can't speak of anything else.
0:16:24 > 0:16:28Bronia could at last repay her little sister as Maria prepared
0:16:28 > 0:16:29to give herself to physics.
0:16:36 > 0:16:43At the close of the nineteenth century, the study of physics was a backwater.
0:16:43 > 0:16:47In the universities of Europe, it was widely accepted that all
0:16:47 > 0:16:51the important laws of nature had been discovered.
0:16:51 > 0:16:56Theories of electromagnetism, thermodynamics and mechanics seemed to explain everything.
0:17:07 > 0:17:12No-one could foresee that there was a scientific revolution looming,
0:17:12 > 0:17:16even less that one of its leaders would be a poor young woman
0:17:16 > 0:17:21from Poland who had just enrolled in the physics faculty.
0:17:21 > 0:17:23# Leave your home
0:17:27 > 0:17:28# Change your name
0:17:33 > 0:17:35# Live alone... #
0:17:37 > 0:17:41In the spring of 1891, Maria Sklodowska arrived in Paris.
0:17:44 > 0:17:47She found herself in France at a time
0:17:47 > 0:17:51when there was some ill-feeling towards foreigners.
0:17:51 > 0:17:52So to better fit in,
0:17:52 > 0:17:56she changed her name to the more Gallic-sounding Marie.
0:17:58 > 0:18:02Her university, the Sorbonne, was one of the few elite
0:18:02 > 0:18:05European academic institutions that admitted women.
0:18:05 > 0:18:11In Britain, it would be the 1920s before Oxford and Cambridge allowed women degrees.
0:18:11 > 0:18:16She excelled, graduating first out of her entire year in science.
0:18:18 > 0:18:19But life was hard.
0:18:19 > 0:18:22After paying rent for her tiny garret room,
0:18:22 > 0:18:26she had very little left over for food or fun.
0:18:26 > 0:18:31If she was to stay in Paris, she needed a job.
0:18:31 > 0:18:32She worked on magnets,
0:18:32 > 0:18:35which now might not sound a terribly exciting subject,
0:18:35 > 0:18:41but you need magnets when you're making electric motors and dynamos.
0:18:41 > 0:18:46This was when the electricity industry was just beginning to take off.
0:18:48 > 0:18:50Electricity companies were hungry to improve
0:18:50 > 0:18:53the quality of the magnets in their generators
0:18:53 > 0:18:57and thereby produce more electricity to keep the lights on.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59Marie was hired to help.
0:19:01 > 0:19:05She carried out lots of very precise research on exactly what
0:19:05 > 0:19:09alloys you use to make a very powerful, very permanent magnet.
0:19:11 > 0:19:14Now she needed a lab in which to work.
0:19:14 > 0:19:17And thanks to some shrewd matchmaking from a fellow Pole,
0:19:17 > 0:19:22she was about to meet lab owner and expert in magnetism, Pierre Curie.
0:19:27 > 0:19:30"When I came in, Pierre Curie was standing in the window.
0:19:30 > 0:19:35"He seemed very young to me, though he was aged 35.
0:19:35 > 0:19:38"I was struck by the expression of his clear gaze,
0:19:38 > 0:19:44"and by a slight appearance of carelessness in his lofty stature."
0:19:44 > 0:19:4730 years later, she remembered that very first moment that she
0:19:47 > 0:19:50saw him across the room and she was terribly struck.
0:19:50 > 0:19:52So I guess it was love at first sight.
0:19:52 > 0:19:54She moved into the corridor of Pierre's lab
0:19:54 > 0:19:58at Ecole de Physique et Chimie and set to work.
0:19:58 > 0:20:04Here, an extraordinary romance unfolded.
0:20:04 > 0:20:06"He caught the habit of speaking to me
0:20:06 > 0:20:08"of his dream of an existence consecrated entirely
0:20:08 > 0:20:15"to scientific research, and asked me to share that life."
0:20:15 > 0:20:20Marie had her doubts. She was homesick and missed her father.
0:20:20 > 0:20:24But Pierre pleaded with her to stay and make a life with him in France.
0:20:25 > 0:20:29# Am I to be the one
0:20:29 > 0:20:35# To hold you back and make you come my way
0:20:35 > 0:20:42# I know I'm the only one to do what's to be done... #
0:20:44 > 0:20:46- So where shall I put this? - Oh, in the cupboard there.
0:20:46 > 0:20:49In desperation, he insisted that if she left,
0:20:49 > 0:20:54he would throw in his career and follow her to Poland.
0:20:57 > 0:20:59He won Marie over.
0:21:01 > 0:21:06"It is a sorrow to me to have to stay for ever in Paris, but what am I to do?
0:21:06 > 0:21:09"Fate has made us deeply attached to each other
0:21:09 > 0:21:14"and we cannot endure the idea of separating."
0:21:14 > 0:21:19Marie and Pierre were married on the 26th of July 1895.
0:21:21 > 0:21:25# Am I to be the one
0:21:25 > 0:21:30# To hold you back and make you come my way
0:21:30 > 0:21:36# I know I'm the only one to do... #
0:21:36 > 0:21:41They honeymooned on two wheels during the so-called Golden Age of Bicycles.
0:21:41 > 0:21:45# Am I to be the one
0:21:45 > 0:21:49# To hold you back and make you come my way... #
0:21:49 > 0:21:52On the newly invented pneumatic tyre,
0:21:52 > 0:21:56they rode far and wide across the French countryside.
0:21:56 > 0:21:58# To do what's to be done... #
0:22:01 > 0:22:05A year and a half later, still working hard on magnetism,
0:22:05 > 0:22:08Marie found herself bearing her first child.
0:22:08 > 0:22:11She approached her pregnancy rather like a modern woman.
0:22:11 > 0:22:14She went on working right until the very end,
0:22:14 > 0:22:18whereas most woman of that period after a couple of months,
0:22:18 > 0:22:20they would have completely retired from public view
0:22:20 > 0:22:24and they'd have spent a lot of time resting and lying down.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28In due course, Pierre's father, Dr Eugene Curie,
0:22:28 > 0:22:34delivered Marie's healthy six-pound baby girl, whom she named Irene.
0:22:34 > 0:22:38She really didn't want her pregnancy to hinder her work at all,
0:22:38 > 0:22:41and she was the sort of woman who was sort of back at the lab bench
0:22:41 > 0:22:44within a couple of days of the baby being born.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47Indeed, just weeks after the birth,
0:22:47 > 0:22:51Marie published her first scientific paper.
0:22:51 > 0:22:53It was an important work, which quickly spread
0:22:53 > 0:22:57around the world, standardising the manufacturing process of magnets.
0:22:59 > 0:23:03But soon after, she abandoned all work on magnetism,
0:23:03 > 0:23:06because she'd heard of a stunning new discovery -
0:23:06 > 0:23:10one that would be the making of her as a professional scientist.
0:23:11 > 0:23:16It was now 1896, and another Paris-based physicist,
0:23:16 > 0:23:19Henri Becquerel, was exploring the properties of uranium.
0:23:23 > 0:23:25Finishing work early one day,
0:23:25 > 0:23:28he placed his materials away in a desk drawer,
0:23:28 > 0:23:33leaving a nugget of uranium on top of a sealed photographic plate.
0:23:33 > 0:23:36When he opened the drawer the following day and examined the plate,
0:23:36 > 0:23:40he saw that it appeared to have been exposed to a bright light.
0:23:44 > 0:23:49Serendipity had led Becquerel to the discovery that uranium was
0:23:49 > 0:23:52emitting unknown rays that could pass through solid matter.
0:23:54 > 0:23:56Nobody had any idea what it was.
0:23:56 > 0:24:00It was not seen as a particularly fruitful research topic,
0:24:00 > 0:24:03which is probably why she, as a Polish woman, was enabled
0:24:03 > 0:24:08to pick it up, because there wasn't a lot of competition for it.
0:24:08 > 0:24:13But after publishing, Becquerel promptly gave up on the strange new rays,
0:24:13 > 0:24:15leaving the field clear for the Curies.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20But how to measure these invisible rays?
0:24:20 > 0:24:23Marie needed something more sensitive than a crude
0:24:23 > 0:24:25photographic plate.
0:24:25 > 0:24:30Fortunately, she'd married a brilliant electrical engineer,
0:24:30 > 0:24:32and he designed a way of accurately measuring the strength of any
0:24:32 > 0:24:35potential source of these rays.
0:24:39 > 0:24:42So this instrument is called ionization chamber.
0:24:42 > 0:24:49As Marie Curie did, we just have to put our sample between the two metal plates.
0:24:49 > 0:24:52The new rays would then ionise the air between the plates
0:24:52 > 0:24:58and a small electrical current would flow to another instrument called an electrometer.
0:24:58 > 0:25:01This measured exactly how much current was produced.
0:25:01 > 0:25:04The electricity will be transmitted and it will reach
0:25:04 > 0:25:07this instrument which is called electrometer.
0:25:07 > 0:25:11And then using the piezoelectrical quartz invented
0:25:11 > 0:25:16by Pierre Curie, it was possible to measure very precisely the rays emitted
0:25:16 > 0:25:17by the sample.
0:25:22 > 0:25:26Marie undertook the enormous task of measuring all the metals,
0:25:26 > 0:25:29minerals and compounds she could get her hands on, to see
0:25:29 > 0:25:33if any others were producing these invisible rays.
0:25:33 > 0:25:36And around this time, she started to refer to the phenomenon
0:25:36 > 0:25:40she was seeking as radioactivity.
0:25:40 > 0:25:43She'd given a whole new area of physics its name.
0:25:54 > 0:25:59But Marie's growing obsession with radioactivity came at a price.
0:26:00 > 0:26:06Irene, and later her second daughter Eve, were cared for by others.
0:26:06 > 0:26:08Her father-in-law took care of her daughters
0:26:08 > 0:26:12and that opened things up entirely for her.
0:26:12 > 0:26:14He was a widower at that stage,
0:26:14 > 0:26:16and I mean literally there were whole years
0:26:16 > 0:26:19when he was their caretaker.
0:26:19 > 0:26:24There are little suggestions of the daughters being resentful.
0:26:24 > 0:26:26And I say this because there were letters -
0:26:26 > 0:26:31certainly Irene would write letters and she would say, you know, "When are you going to come home?
0:26:31 > 0:26:34"When are you going to be able to read to me
0:26:34 > 0:26:36"instead of Grandfather reading to me?"
0:26:36 > 0:26:41In time, Irene would understand Marie's passion for science but Eve never would.
0:26:41 > 0:26:45And her resentment would remain throughout her life.
0:26:56 > 0:26:59Marie continued to work at Pierre's apparatus,
0:26:59 > 0:27:02until one day, whilst testing a substance called pitchblende,
0:27:02 > 0:27:08she got a result that sent the electrometer off the scale.
0:27:08 > 0:27:12This was the highest reading anyone had seen, and since it was so much
0:27:12 > 0:27:19stronger than uranium, it must be coming from an entirely new element.
0:27:19 > 0:27:21The question was, what was it?
0:27:30 > 0:27:34Since pitchblende was a mixture of different elements jumbled together,
0:27:34 > 0:27:39somehow she had to free her new element from the compound material.
0:27:39 > 0:27:41In Marie Curie's notebooks,
0:27:41 > 0:27:44she talks about starting with 100g of material.
0:27:44 > 0:27:47We're losing bits all over the place.
0:27:49 > 0:27:55You know, really substantial amounts of rock and this is really hardcore physical labour.
0:27:55 > 0:27:59You've just got to pound and grind until you've got
0:27:59 > 0:28:03a nice, fine, free-flowing material
0:28:03 > 0:28:09and at that point you can move really from the engineering into the chemistry.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13The next step is going to be to actually try and dissolve it out
0:28:13 > 0:28:17and she would have chosen nitric acid - because what she would have
0:28:17 > 0:28:24known was that this could dissolve up pretty well any metallic ion.
0:28:27 > 0:28:30At this point, Marie Curie would really have been reaching
0:28:30 > 0:28:31a kind of branching point,
0:28:31 > 0:28:35in that there would have been the immediate question
0:28:35 > 0:28:37of where is the radioactivity?
0:28:37 > 0:28:42Is it actually soluble in the acid, or is it left behind?
0:28:42 > 0:28:46A quick check with the electrometer and she deduced - correctly -
0:28:46 > 0:28:48that her new element was in the liquid.
0:28:48 > 0:28:50But there was a problem.
0:28:52 > 0:28:56The pitchblende only contained a tiny quantity of this new element.
0:28:56 > 0:29:00# So I can't get enough of that stuff... #
0:29:00 > 0:29:02So to isolate it, she'd have to process
0:29:02 > 0:29:06tons of the stuff to find her needle in a haystack.
0:29:06 > 0:29:09# And I've tried and I've tried
0:29:09 > 0:29:11# But all night I have cried
0:29:11 > 0:29:16# No, I can't get enough of that stuff... #
0:29:16 > 0:29:20We're standing in the car park of what's now called the ESPCI,
0:29:20 > 0:29:22which is a big physics and chemistry institute in Paris.
0:29:22 > 0:29:29And behind me here there's a white line on the ground and that marks out one corner of a shed
0:29:29 > 0:29:33that Pierre and Marie Curie were given to work in.
0:29:34 > 0:29:38# Do you think that's it's smart to pump it through my heart
0:29:38 > 0:29:43# No, I can't get enough of that stuff... #
0:29:45 > 0:29:47The shed was run down -
0:29:47 > 0:29:49draughty and freezing cold in the winter,
0:29:49 > 0:29:53stifling hot under the glass in the summer.
0:29:53 > 0:29:56And this is where all the horse-carts of pitchblende
0:29:56 > 0:30:01would line up and deposit all their deliveries for Pierre
0:30:01 > 0:30:03and Marie Curie to refine.
0:30:06 > 0:30:10When you think about the kind of lab operations that she was doing,
0:30:10 > 0:30:15I mean a lot of it was really kind of repetitive, tedious drudgery
0:30:15 > 0:30:19and in a way you wonder what kept her going.
0:30:19 > 0:30:23And it's when you start looking at the notebooks that maybe one gets a kind of clue.
0:30:23 > 0:30:27And here on the 27th of June 1898 she starts with
0:30:27 > 0:30:31180 grams of powdered pitchblende.
0:30:31 > 0:30:36But at the end of half a page of description, suddenly there she is -
0:30:36 > 0:30:42very large letters saying "300 times more active than uranium".
0:30:42 > 0:30:44There was always, in a sense, this sort of little
0:30:44 > 0:30:48light at the end of the tunnel which was getting brighter and brighter.
0:30:51 > 0:30:54For four years she persevered,
0:30:54 > 0:30:57gradually getting closer to isolating her new element.
0:31:00 > 0:31:03And as she continued to concentrate the material,
0:31:03 > 0:31:05something wonderful unfolded.
0:31:06 > 0:31:10Before they started all the experimenting, Pierre had said to Marie,
0:31:10 > 0:31:15"I wonder what sort of colour our new product is going to be?"
0:31:15 > 0:31:19And he fantasised that it would be some sort of bluey-greeny
0:31:19 > 0:31:22magic colour. And that was indeed what happened.
0:31:22 > 0:31:26As the pitchblende became more and more concentrated as they went on purifying it,
0:31:26 > 0:31:31this sort of strange eerie blue-green glow could be seen all over the walls
0:31:31 > 0:31:35of the little shed that they were working in.
0:31:35 > 0:31:37MUSIC: "Clair de Lune" by Claude Debussy
0:31:48 > 0:31:52And they used to come here at night, and watch it and marvel at it
0:31:52 > 0:31:54and they had a family at home, but for them,
0:31:54 > 0:31:58it was a scientific child that they had worked on together for so long
0:31:58 > 0:32:00and dreamt about it and finally here they were, they were producing it
0:32:00 > 0:32:05in this tiny dilapidated shed with a glass roof.
0:32:07 > 0:32:11And then you get to page 66 with a big underlined heading
0:32:11 > 0:32:14which says "Dosage" - determination.
0:32:14 > 0:32:20The 28th of March 1902 - she says 0.1179 grams.
0:32:20 > 0:32:28And then there's a quick calculation and at the end of it in really large letters there's "Ra = 225.9".
0:32:28 > 0:32:31She now knows the atomic mass
0:32:31 > 0:32:36and she really knows exactly where in the periodic table this fits.
0:32:36 > 0:32:38This is kind of the moment of triumph.
0:32:38 > 0:32:42It's the culmination of years of work. She's arrived.
0:32:45 > 0:32:47Congratulations.
0:32:49 > 0:32:52After four years of bone-crushingly hard work,
0:32:52 > 0:32:57Marie and Pierre had discovered a new element - radium.
0:33:03 > 0:33:06Its highly radioactive nature
0:33:06 > 0:33:10and eerie green glow set the world alight.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13MUSIC: "I Can't Get Enough" by the Dead Brothers
0:33:20 > 0:33:24# No, I can't get enough of that stuff
0:33:24 > 0:33:27# No, I can't get enough of that stuff... #
0:33:27 > 0:33:30I think nowadays we're terribly aware of how dangerous
0:33:30 > 0:33:33radiation of any kind can be.
0:33:33 > 0:33:37But when it first appeared, it seemed that this new miracle source of energy -
0:33:37 > 0:33:40it was a universal panacea - and it was being advertised for
0:33:40 > 0:33:47throat medicines, and cough cures, and you could buy radium toothpaste.
0:33:47 > 0:33:52It was sort of the new hope for the future.
0:33:52 > 0:33:55As the radium craze spread, some could still not believe
0:33:55 > 0:33:59the central role Marie had played in the discovery.
0:34:00 > 0:34:04There's this marvellous caricature that came out in Vanity Fair
0:34:04 > 0:34:08and there's Marie Curie and Pierre Curie in Man of the Year.
0:34:08 > 0:34:11And he's there and he's holding up this great big test-tube
0:34:11 > 0:34:15and the radium is shining out onto his forehead.
0:34:15 > 0:34:17and so his forehead is glowing with genius.
0:34:17 > 0:34:20And she's this little diminutive figure behind him
0:34:20 > 0:34:23with a hand on his shoulder, sort of peering over him,
0:34:23 > 0:34:27and you can almost hear her saying, "Oh, Pierre! You're so clever."
0:34:28 > 0:34:31So all the glory of the discovery is being attributed to him.
0:34:31 > 0:34:35Even though it was very much a collaborative piece of work.
0:34:38 > 0:34:40The years of toil had paid off.
0:34:40 > 0:34:44In 1903, the Nobel committee decided to honour
0:34:44 > 0:34:46the discoverers of radioactivity.
0:34:48 > 0:34:51But in a blatant show of sexism, the committee only nominated
0:34:51 > 0:34:54Henri Becquerel and Pierre.
0:34:54 > 0:34:55Marie was ignored.
0:34:59 > 0:35:01Pierre responded that if this nomination was serious
0:35:01 > 0:35:06he could not accept the prize unless Madame Curie's name was included.
0:35:06 > 0:35:08The committee was forced to relent,
0:35:08 > 0:35:12and all three shared the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics.
0:35:14 > 0:35:18"We have been awarded half of the Nobel prize. We are inundated with
0:35:18 > 0:35:22"letters and visits by journalists and photographers, and yesterday
0:35:22 > 0:35:26"an American wrote, asking permission to name a racehorse after me."
0:35:30 > 0:35:34The Curies were on their way to scientific stardom, but their health
0:35:34 > 0:35:38was beginning to suffer from the years of exposure to radiation.
0:35:52 > 0:35:55Pierre was feeling especially unwell as he left Marie
0:35:55 > 0:36:00on the 19th of April 1906 for a series of appointments in Paris.
0:36:06 > 0:36:09Pierre Curie's just had his lunch.
0:36:09 > 0:36:14He's in a hurry, he's got to get to the printer's down there.
0:36:14 > 0:36:18It was raining - he had an umbrella and he crossed the road.
0:36:18 > 0:36:20He slipped onto the cobbles
0:36:20 > 0:36:25and he saw these two horses in front of him and he grabbed the harness
0:36:25 > 0:36:29and tried to save himself but then he got thrown down on the ground.
0:36:29 > 0:36:31And for a moment it seemed that everything was fine.
0:36:31 > 0:36:34The carriage missed him but then, just at the last moment,
0:36:34 > 0:36:38the back wheels of the carriage swerved and they went right
0:36:38 > 0:36:39over his head.
0:36:40 > 0:36:43And it crushed his skull and he died immediately.
0:36:49 > 0:36:51"I put my head against the coffin.
0:36:51 > 0:36:56"And in great distress, I spoke to you.
0:36:56 > 0:36:57"I told you that I loved you
0:36:57 > 0:37:01"and that I had always loved you with all my heart."
0:37:01 > 0:37:03MUSIC: "Adieu Mon Coeur" by Edith Piaf
0:37:06 > 0:37:12# Adieu mon coeur
0:37:12 > 0:37:20# On te jette au malheur
0:37:20 > 0:37:26# Tu n'auras pas mes yeux
0:37:26 > 0:37:29# Pour mourir... #
0:37:29 > 0:37:31Slowly, Marie emerged from her pain.
0:37:35 > 0:37:36Seven months after his death,
0:37:36 > 0:37:39she took on Pierre's professorship at the Sorbonne,
0:37:39 > 0:37:41supported by her closest friends...
0:37:44 > 0:37:47..one of whom, Paul Langevin, had been Pierre's student.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54He too was unhappy, trapped in a loveless marriage,
0:37:54 > 0:37:57so it was perhaps only natural that the two became close.
0:38:00 > 0:38:02So we're standing near the Sorbonne.
0:38:02 > 0:38:06Somewhere in the area, Paul Langevin rented a small apartment
0:38:06 > 0:38:09and he used to meet Marie Curie there and this is where they
0:38:09 > 0:38:14conducted their affair and where their love relationship blossomed.
0:38:14 > 0:38:16They were together when Marie's name was put forward for
0:38:16 > 0:38:21a second Nobel prize, in Chemistry, in recognition of her work
0:38:21 > 0:38:24isolating radium and a second new element, polonium.
0:38:24 > 0:38:27To this day, she is the only person
0:38:27 > 0:38:30to win two Nobel prizes in two different sciences.
0:38:32 > 0:38:36And so it was that she found herself sharing the wonderful news
0:38:36 > 0:38:38with Paul at the Solvay conference.
0:38:38 > 0:38:41She'd made it to the top table of physics.
0:38:50 > 0:38:52But her union with Paul was doomed.
0:38:52 > 0:38:55Although in an extraordinary twist,
0:38:55 > 0:38:58this would not be the last Curie-Langevin relationship.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03Because two generations later, Marie's granddaughter
0:39:03 > 0:39:05married Paul's grandson.
0:39:05 > 0:39:09And to this day, her grandmother's affair remains a raw subject.
0:39:11 > 0:39:13It was a big problem.
0:39:13 > 0:39:18There was all the campaigns in the newspapers.
0:39:18 > 0:39:22It was not only the Polish woman,
0:39:22 > 0:39:27but woman taking the husband in a family
0:39:27 > 0:39:31with four children and so on, and so on.
0:39:31 > 0:39:35And there was a publication of letters.
0:39:39 > 0:39:43When his wife disclosed these supposed love letters,
0:39:43 > 0:39:47we think they were real, but we don't know all the details.
0:39:49 > 0:39:55My feeling is that really they were falsified.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59But nobody took care of this point.
0:39:59 > 0:40:01She was a widow, so she was not married
0:40:01 > 0:40:03so she was not adulterous in any way.
0:40:03 > 0:40:09The problem is, for her, this affair showed that she was a sexual being.
0:40:09 > 0:40:11And the reason why that was so damning for her
0:40:11 > 0:40:14in ways it would not have been for a man was because it showed that
0:40:14 > 0:40:19her science was not nearly as saintly as everyone had made it to look.
0:40:19 > 0:40:21Because of course, a woman's sexuality
0:40:21 > 0:40:25and her science were somehow seen as one and the same.
0:40:25 > 0:40:27I mean, you know, when Einstein had his affairs,
0:40:27 > 0:40:31no-one looked at what he was doing in his private life
0:40:31 > 0:40:36and what he was doing in his science life as related in any way.
0:40:36 > 0:40:41Whether the letters were fake or not, the effect was devastating.
0:40:41 > 0:40:42For the French tabloids,
0:40:42 > 0:40:46the story of a famous female immigrant ruining the marriage
0:40:46 > 0:40:51of a prestigious Frenchman perfectly suited their nationalistic agenda.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53She was vilified, hounded
0:40:53 > 0:40:56and abandoned by many of her previous supporters.
0:40:58 > 0:41:03It was a very difficult period for all the family
0:41:03 > 0:41:07and the children in particular.
0:41:07 > 0:41:11Somehow, Marie had to find the strength to carry on.
0:41:11 > 0:41:15The turning point came when the Nobel committee once again
0:41:15 > 0:41:18questioned her suitability for the prize in Chemistry.
0:41:32 > 0:41:37Incredulous, Marie rediscovered the inner steel that had got her so far.
0:41:37 > 0:41:39She wrote back -
0:41:39 > 0:41:42"I believe there is no connection between my scientific work
0:41:42 > 0:41:44"and the facts of private life.
0:41:44 > 0:41:48"I cannot accept the idea in principle that the appreciation of
0:41:48 > 0:41:54"the value of scientific work should be influenced by libel and slander."
0:41:54 > 0:41:58A harder, prouder, more aggressive Madame Curie emerged,
0:41:58 > 0:42:01who in her address to the Nobel prize ceremony,
0:42:01 > 0:42:06firmly established her ownership of the field of radioactivity.
0:42:06 > 0:42:08"The discoveries of radium
0:42:08 > 0:42:12"and polonium were made by Pierre Curie in collaboration with me.
0:42:12 > 0:42:16"The chemical work aimed at isolating radium was carried out
0:42:16 > 0:42:17"especially by me."
0:42:22 > 0:42:28With this newfound determination, she set about rebuilding her life.
0:42:28 > 0:42:30And though she would never find love again,
0:42:30 > 0:42:33she would see her reputation shift once more,
0:42:33 > 0:42:36as she took on an almost legendary status.
0:42:51 > 0:42:54Marie decided to take charge of her own destiny.
0:42:54 > 0:43:00Rather than work in someone else's lab, she would build her own.
0:43:00 > 0:43:05She designed her Radium Institute to be a state-of-the-art laboratory
0:43:05 > 0:43:07built around a charming little square
0:43:07 > 0:43:10where she could indulge her love of gardening.
0:43:10 > 0:43:17Here she planted many of the trees and roses that grow to this day.
0:43:17 > 0:43:22But her peace did not last, because on the 3rd of August 1914...
0:43:26 > 0:43:28..Germany declared war on France.
0:43:31 > 0:43:36Fearful of a German invasion of Paris, many fled the capital.
0:43:36 > 0:43:39Marie however stayed,
0:43:39 > 0:43:42though all work on her new institute stopped.
0:43:49 > 0:43:54As the war began to bite, Marie learned that lives were being lost
0:43:54 > 0:43:58because the entire French army had only one X-ray station.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06So in a moment of organizational brilliance,
0:44:06 > 0:44:10she conceived the idea of mobile X-ray units -
0:44:10 > 0:44:14small cars adapted to carry their own generator
0:44:14 > 0:44:18and lightweight X-ray equipment.
0:44:18 > 0:44:22To help the war effort, Marie taught herself to drive,
0:44:22 > 0:44:26and took the so-called Petites Curies to wherever they were needed,
0:44:26 > 0:44:30where she'd unload the equipment, hook up the generator
0:44:30 > 0:44:33and activate the X-ray machine,
0:44:33 > 0:44:38with little or no protection from the rays for herself.
0:44:38 > 0:44:41But she desperately needed more technicians,
0:44:41 > 0:44:44so she brought her elder daughter to the front.
0:44:48 > 0:44:53In the 17-year-old Irene, Marie had found a new collaborator,
0:44:53 > 0:44:56a relationship that would last until her death.
0:45:03 > 0:45:06By the end of the Great War in 1918,
0:45:06 > 0:45:10Marie's X-ray units had treated over a million wounded soldiers.
0:45:10 > 0:45:13And with the subsequent treaty of Versailles,
0:45:13 > 0:45:18Poland was given its independence after 123 years of occupation.
0:45:18 > 0:45:22Marie had lived to see her mother-country free at last.
0:45:28 > 0:45:32The French government never formally recognised her efforts
0:45:32 > 0:45:36during the war, but social attitudes towards Marie did begin to soften.
0:45:41 > 0:45:44She returned to the Radium Institute, where she continued
0:45:44 > 0:45:49her radioactivity research here in her laboratory.
0:45:49 > 0:45:54Marie had never taken out patents on any of her discoveries, so money was
0:45:54 > 0:45:59a constant worry and she was running short of her precious radium.
0:45:59 > 0:46:04That's why in 1920 - perhaps sensing an opportunity -
0:46:04 > 0:46:08she agreed to meet one "Missy" Mattingly Meloney, an American
0:46:08 > 0:46:11journalist who had come all the way to Paris to interview her.
0:46:14 > 0:46:16Over the course of the interview,
0:46:16 > 0:46:18she comes to discover that
0:46:18 > 0:46:21Madame Curie, who had discovered radium,
0:46:21 > 0:46:25did not actually have a gram of it to run her experiments.
0:46:25 > 0:46:29So Meloney decides, "Well, I'm going to start this big radium campaign in the United States,"
0:46:29 > 0:46:34and she's the perfect person to do this because of course she's very well-connected.
0:46:34 > 0:46:37And indeed she comes back to the United States and within months,
0:46:37 > 0:46:41she raises well over the 100,000 she needs for this gram of radium.
0:46:41 > 0:46:46MUSIC: "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin
0:46:46 > 0:46:48And so, on the 11th of May 1921,
0:46:48 > 0:46:54Marie arrived in New York's Hudson Bay to collect more radium.
0:46:54 > 0:46:57It was still incredibly rare
0:46:57 > 0:47:02and if she was to ensure her institute's future, she needed more.
0:47:02 > 0:47:05Accompanied by her daughters, she'd crossed the Atlantic
0:47:05 > 0:47:09on the Titanic's sister ship, the Olympic.
0:47:09 > 0:47:12She was in her suite and, uh,
0:47:12 > 0:47:14Marie Mattingly Meloney, Missy,
0:47:14 > 0:47:19warned her that she was going to have to meet some reporters
0:47:19 > 0:47:23and that there were photographers and she took a little while
0:47:23 > 0:47:26then she finally came out and she was interviewed
0:47:26 > 0:47:28by a battery of reporters.
0:47:28 > 0:47:33This is where she supposedly said that radium could cure
0:47:33 > 0:47:37all diseases, even the very deep tumours.
0:47:38 > 0:47:42Marie Curie's name was increasingly being linked to a radical
0:47:42 > 0:47:47cancer treatment that she and Pierre had developed.
0:47:47 > 0:47:51For cancers that were readily accessible, say on the face,
0:47:51 > 0:47:59tiny flecks of radium would be carefully positioned over the tumour.
0:47:56 > 0:47:59The radiation would kill the cancer cells.
0:47:59 > 0:48:01And if the patient was lucky,
0:48:01 > 0:48:04their healthy cells would in time repair the lesion.
0:48:08 > 0:48:11Marie herself had little to do with cancer treatment.
0:48:11 > 0:48:17Her focus remained purely on radioactivity research.
0:48:17 > 0:48:23But Missy was a master of spin. She knew that selling a dedicated
0:48:23 > 0:48:27scientist to the American public would be tough.
0:48:27 > 0:48:30She needs to make her look likeable.
0:48:30 > 0:48:32But that also means making her look appropriate.
0:48:32 > 0:48:33She has to depict her
0:48:33 > 0:48:38not as scientist at all but as this maternal figure,
0:48:38 > 0:48:41who of course didn't actually discover radium because she was
0:48:41 > 0:48:46doing science for science's sake like men do, she was doing it because
0:48:46 > 0:48:50of course she wanted to rid humanity of cancer, like any good mother
0:48:50 > 0:48:53would want to and this is really why she discovered radium. And so this
0:48:53 > 0:48:58is the publicity that Curie walks into when she comes to New York in 1921.
0:48:58 > 0:49:01MUSIC: "Freddie Freeloader" by Miles Davis
0:49:07 > 0:49:10Marie began a series of public engagements
0:49:10 > 0:49:15that Missy had laid on that would last for eight weeks.
0:49:15 > 0:49:17"The programme seemed very intimidating.
0:49:17 > 0:49:22"It was assumed that I would not only attend a ceremony at the White House
0:49:22 > 0:49:26"but also visit many universities and colleges in several towns.
0:49:26 > 0:49:29"Some of these institutions had contributed to the fund.
0:49:29 > 0:49:33"All desired to offer me honours."
0:49:33 > 0:49:38The timing of her coming to the United States was not a coincidence.
0:49:38 > 0:49:41Women had just won suffrage in the United States in 1920.
0:49:41 > 0:49:44They're just starting to get the right to vote in this country.
0:49:44 > 0:49:48So she's thinking she's a very good role model for American women.
0:49:55 > 0:50:00Marie Curie began her US tour here in the city of New York.
0:50:00 > 0:50:04And it was immediately clear that amongst American women,
0:50:04 > 0:50:06she had become a star.
0:50:11 > 0:50:16We're here in Carnegie Hall and I'm thinking back to May 18th, 1921,
0:50:16 > 0:50:18when Marie Curie was honoured.
0:50:18 > 0:50:19APPLAUSE
0:50:24 > 0:50:28We know that when Marie Curie entered, there was
0:50:28 > 0:50:34thunderous applause and the applause took maybe five minutes to die down.
0:50:34 > 0:50:37The event was sponsored by American university women
0:50:37 > 0:50:41and it was a celebration of Curie but it was also a celebration of, really,
0:50:41 > 0:50:44higher education for women in the United States.
0:50:46 > 0:50:52According to newspaper accounts, there were supposedly 3,500 women in attendance.
0:50:52 > 0:50:57The colleges decorated the hall with their banners.
0:50:57 > 0:51:00It must have been very colourful. Certainly very exciting.
0:51:06 > 0:51:09Marie was an instant hit.
0:51:09 > 0:51:11And all the while as she toured the States,
0:51:11 > 0:51:17Missy worked hard to protect the legend she was creating.
0:51:17 > 0:51:20Everybody was very good about not mentioning the scandal,
0:51:20 > 0:51:24the sex scandal in Paris. And of course, remember, this was
0:51:24 > 0:51:29Meloney making very clear, "When you cover her, do not discuss this."
0:51:29 > 0:51:34Exhausted, Marie finally arrived in Washington
0:51:34 > 0:51:37for her last appointment at the White House itself.
0:51:39 > 0:51:44"It was a deeply moving ceremony in all of its simplicity.
0:51:44 > 0:51:47"It comprised a short presentation by the French ambassador,
0:51:47 > 0:51:51"a speech by Missy Meloney on behalf of the American women,
0:51:51 > 0:51:53"and then the address of President Harding."
0:51:53 > 0:51:58MUSIC: "Rhapsody in Blue" by George Gershwin
0:51:58 > 0:52:02At last, she received what she'd come to America for.
0:52:02 > 0:52:08When Harding hands her the ceremonial box of radium, he says
0:52:08 > 0:52:14"This is a gift from the American people," and he even goes so far as to say, you know,
0:52:14 > 0:52:17"We are just in awe of you, not only for your science but
0:52:17 > 0:52:21"because you did all this, and still were the perfect wife and mother."
0:52:25 > 0:52:28Marie returned to France with her name restored
0:52:28 > 0:52:31and the future of her beloved Institute secure.
0:52:36 > 0:52:40She would return again to America to collect more
0:52:40 > 0:52:45radium for a second Radium Institute in Warsaw she was helping to establish.
0:52:45 > 0:52:48But it would take an even greater toll on her failing health.
0:52:56 > 0:53:01Soon after she came home, she wrote to Missy.
0:53:01 > 0:53:05"My very dear friend, your letter distressed me.
0:53:05 > 0:53:08"I did not know that you had a bad accident.
0:53:08 > 0:53:12"I too had troubles, a kind of general disease which obliged me
0:53:12 > 0:53:16"to take a very strict diet, probably to last for the future."
0:53:19 > 0:53:21After years of ill health,
0:53:21 > 0:53:26her family helped nurse Marie during her final months.
0:53:26 > 0:53:28Eve really comes to terms with her mother later in life.
0:53:28 > 0:53:32She's the one that really cares for her in her final days.
0:53:32 > 0:53:34And I think that there's a sort of reconciliation, but it was
0:53:34 > 0:53:40a very um...I mean, the relationship between them was torn for some time.
0:53:40 > 0:53:43It took her mother dying, I think,
0:53:43 > 0:53:46and her being there to take care of her for them to sort of reconcile.
0:53:51 > 0:53:58On the 4th of July 1934, Marie Curie died, aged 67,
0:53:58 > 0:54:00with Eve by her side.
0:54:14 > 0:54:19Her doctor gave the cause of death as aplastic pernicious anaemia.
0:54:19 > 0:54:24Her bone marrow had been injured by the long accumulation of radiation.
0:54:24 > 0:54:28So it seemed her child, radium, had killed her.
0:54:31 > 0:54:35She was buried in this cemetery just outside Paris,
0:54:35 > 0:54:37where she shared a grave with Pierre.
0:54:42 > 0:54:45And here they lay together for over sixty years.
0:54:47 > 0:54:50Until one spring day in 1995,
0:54:50 > 0:54:57when radioprotection expert Jean-Luc Pasquier came to examine her remains.
0:54:57 > 0:54:59HE SPEAKS FRENCH
0:55:11 > 0:55:15Since the half-life of radium is 1,600 years,
0:55:15 > 0:55:19they were worried that Marie was still radioactive,
0:55:19 > 0:55:23because they were about to move her body.
0:55:57 > 0:56:01This surprised everyone, because if the myth was correct
0:56:01 > 0:56:05and radium exposure had made her a martyr to her science,
0:56:05 > 0:56:09her remains should still exceed today's safe levels.
0:56:09 > 0:56:14So it led the team to speculate that something else had caused her premature demise.
0:56:46 > 0:56:51If X-rays killed Marie, then she was a different kind of martyr.
0:56:52 > 0:56:56Her life ended prematurely - like so many others -
0:56:56 > 0:56:59as a result of her efforts in the Great War.
0:57:04 > 0:57:08A few days later, here in the heart of Paris,
0:57:08 > 0:57:11the Curies were given a full state funeral.
0:57:11 > 0:57:15# Adieu mon coeur... #
0:57:16 > 0:57:21This square and the street down there are absolutely packed with people,
0:57:21 > 0:57:24and there's a big white carpet coming all the way
0:57:24 > 0:57:29up the street, across the square and up the steps into the Pantheon.
0:57:29 > 0:57:31# ..mes yeux
0:57:31 > 0:57:35# Pour mourir... #
0:57:35 > 0:57:41They'd made it into France's national mausoleum.
0:57:41 > 0:57:46# Adieu mon coeur... #
0:57:46 > 0:57:50In a sense, it was a final journey for Pierre and Marie Curie
0:57:50 > 0:57:54but for Marie Curie in particular, it was a very momentous occasion,
0:57:54 > 0:57:58because she was the first woman to be buried in the Pantheon
0:57:58 > 0:58:02as a tribute to her own individual achievements.
0:58:06 > 0:58:10At last, France had made it up to Marie Curie.
0:58:10 > 0:58:15This brave, brilliant Polish scientist, so cruelly
0:58:15 > 0:58:20shamed in life, had received her adopted country's highest honour.
0:58:26 > 0:58:28# Autrefois tu respirais le soleil d'or
0:58:33 > 0:58:34# Tu marchais sur des tresors
0:58:40 > 0:58:41# On etait vagabonds
0:58:44 > 0:58:47# On aimait les chansons C'a fini dans les prisons... #
0:58:50 > 0:58:52Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd