It is difficult to find out the source of Madame Curie's three grams of radium.

1920 One morning in May, an American journalist named Madame Meron finally met Madame Curie, the discoverer of radium, in the Paris laboratory after many twists and turns. The dignified and elegant Madame Curie and the extremely simple laboratory left a deep impression on the American journalist. At this time, radium has been 18 years, and its original value is as high as 750,000 gold francs per gram! The American journalist concluded that Madame Curie should have become rich because of this patented technology.

In fact, the Curies gave up their patents as early as 18 years ago and published the purification method of radium without reservation. Madame Curie's explanation is very simple: "No one should get rich from radium, it belongs to all mankind."

Mrs. Malone was puzzled and asked, "Is there nothing you want most in this world?"

"Yes, one gram of radium, for the convenience of my research. But eighteen years later, I can't afford it. Its price is too expensive. "

This unexpected answer surprised Mrs Malone very much. The purification technology of radium has made businessmen all over the world rich, but the discoverer of radium is so difficult! She immediately flew back to the United States and found that the market price of one gram of radium in the United States at that time was100000 dollars. She found ten female millionaires first, thinking that they were all women and rich, and they would definitely give their money to help. Unexpectedly, they all hit a wall. Mrs. maloney realized that this is not only a demand for money, but also a kind of social education, calling on the public to understand science and carry forward the character of scientists. As a result, she ran around among women in the United States and finally succeeded. 1921On May 20th, the President of the United States presented Madame Curie with a gram of radium donated by the public.

Before the presentation ceremony, when she saw the words "presented to Madame Curie" written on the "presented certificate", she was unhappy. She declared: "This certificate needs to be revised. This gram of radium given to me by the American people should always belong to science, but if it is written like this, this gram of radium will become my private property and my daughters' industry. This is absolutely impossible. " The organizer hired a lawyer to modify the certificate that night, and Madame Curie signed the "gift certificate".

A few years later, when Madame Curie wanted to establish a radium research institute in her native Warsaw, Poland, to carry out the work of treating cancer, the American public donated one gram of radium to her again.

Some people think that Madame Curie's stubbornness in dealing with radium is incomprehensible. As long as you sign the patent book, won't all the difficulties be solved? Madame Curie later answered this question in her autobiography: "What they said is not unreasonable, but I still believe that my husband and wife are right. Humans need people who are brave in practice. They can get great gains from their work. They can not forget the public welfare, but also protect their own interests. But human beings also need dreamers and need to be obsessed with the selflessness of their careers. "

Madame Curie had three grams of radium in her life. These three grams of radium show the great personality of a scientist.