20 Facts About Pierre Curie

Pierre Curie was a French physicist, a pioneer in crystallography, magnetism, piezoelectricity, and radioactivity.

Pierre Curie was educated by his father and in his early teens showed a strong aptitude for mathematics and geometry.

Pierre Curie did not proceed immediately to a doctorate due to lack of money.

When Pierre Curie was preparing for his Bachelor of Science degree, he worked in the laboratory of Jean-Gustave Bourbouze in the Faculty of Science.

In subsequent work on magnetism Pierre Curie defined the Curie scale.

Pierre Curie refused his initial proposal, but finally agreed to marry him on 26 July 1895.

Pierre Curie studied ferromagnetism, paramagnetism, and diamagnetism for his doctoral thesis, and discovered the effect of temperature on paramagnetism which is known as Curie's law.

The material constant in Pierre Curie's law is known as the Pierre Curie constant.

Pierre Curie discovered that ferromagnetic substances exhibited a critical temperature transition, above which the substances lost their ferromagnetic behavior.

The Pierre Curie temperature is used to study plate tectonics, treat hypothermia, measure caffeine, and to understand extraterrestrial magnetic fields.

Pierre Curie formulated what is known as the Curie Dissymmetry Principle: a physical effect cannot have a dissymmetry absent from its efficient cause.

Pierre Curie worked with his wife in isolating polonium and radium.

Marie Curie was not permitted to give the lecture so Lord Kelvin sat beside her while Pierre spoke on their research.

Pierre Curie investigated the radiation emissions of radioactive substances, and through the use of magnetic fields was able to show that some of the emissions were positively charged, some were negative and some were neutral.

Pierre Curie initially thought the systematic investigation into the paranormal could help with some unanswered questions about magnetism.

Pierre Curie did not attend seances such as those of Eusapia Palladino in Paris in June 1905 as a mere spectator, and his goal certainly was not to communicate with spirits.

Pierre Curie saw the seances as scientific experiments, tried to monitor different parameters, and took detailed notes of every observation.

Pierre Curie was the only member of the Curie family to not become a physicist.

Pierre and Marie Curie's granddaughter, Helene Langevin-Joliot, is a professor of nuclear physics at the University of Paris, and their grandson, Pierre Joliot, who was named after Pierre Curie, is a noted biochemist.

Pierre Curie died in a street collision in Paris on 19 April 1906.