Rebecca Rosado: Marie Curie

Maria Salomea Sklodowska-Curie was born 7 November of 1867 in Poland and died 4 July of 1934 in France. She was the first woman who won a Nobel Prize and the only woman that won the Nobel Price twice. [3],[4] She began her interest in science by following her dad’s footsteps .Her father was a math and physics tutor. Because she was a woman, she could not attend a formal university but assisted to a “floating university”, a set of underground and secret place where she took classes Her main interests to study where physics, chemistry and mathematics. [2] For five years Maria worked as a tutor and a governess to earn money to go to the university. In 1891, she enrolled at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France. After she earned her master’s degree, Maria was searching for a large laboratory to work. Professor Jozef Kowalski introduced Pierre Curie to Maria. The passion between Maria and Pierre made them to decide to get married. On 26 July of 1895 Maria Sklodowska married Pierre Curie. In 1903, Marie Curie and Pierre Curie won the Nobel Prize in Physics. The prize share was ¼ for each one because Antoine Henri Becquerel also won it. [5] As stated by the Nobel Prize website, Marie and Pierre Curie won the Nobel because “in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Becquerel.” [1] It was a research of many years that made Pierre and Marie to won the Nobel. Before she knew about Pierre, Marie was conducting experiments on uranium rays, based by Becquerel’s works. However after Marie and Pierre got married, Pierre decided to abandon his work and help with Marie’s. She theorized that the rays remained constant because came from the element’s atomic structure. Marie Curie invented the term “radioactivity” to describe this phenomena. In 1897, Marie and Pierre welcomed their first child but this didn’t helped them stop with their research.  In 1898, both Marie and Pierre discovered a radioactive element called Polonium. In 1902 also discovered another radioactive element called Radium. [7]

In the same year that Pierre and Marie won the Nobel (1903), they welcomed their second child. In 1906, Pierre dies in an accident. Marie decided to become a professor and was the first female professor at Sorbonne University. In 1914 when World War I began, Marie Curie invented portable X-ray machines for the soldiers. In her finals year, Marie’s health was degrading. She always carried radioactive test tubes in her lab coat pocket. The prolonged exposure to radiation without proper protection made that in 1934 Marie Curie died of aplastic anemia. In 1995, Marie’s and Pierre’s remains where placed at the Pantheon in Paris, France. This place is where the greatest minds in France rest. Marie Curie was the only woman to be laid to rest there.  Irene Curie, Marie and Pierre Curie’s first child, followed her parent’s footsteps. In 1935, Irene and her husband won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on the synthesis of new radioactive elements. [6]

References

• [1] The Nobel Medal for Physics and Chemistry.

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/medal.html (accessed November 30,2014)

• [2] Marie Curie-Biographical.

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/marie-curie-bio.html (accessed November 30,2014)

• [3] Marie Curie- Facts. 

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1911/marie-curie-facts.html (accessed November 30,2014)

• [4] The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911.

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1911/ (accessed November 30,2014)

• [5] The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903.

http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/ (accessed November 30,2014)

• [6] Marie Curie Biography.

http://www.biography.com/people/marie-curie-9263538 (accessed November 30,2014)

• [7] Marie Curie: Facts and Biography.

http://www.livescience.com/38907-marie-curie-facts-biography.html

Wilfredo Joel Núñez Pacheco: Colonizing the Universe

In the late 1960's, America was the pioneering country in discovery. Coming off just landing Apollo 11 on the Moon and the first steps taken by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in its surface. This pioneering spirit was also fueled by the Cold War between the United States and Russia. But since the end of that era, the exploration of space has been put on hold taking with it the dreams of a nation. What are the next steps in the exploration of space? Scientists and physicists agree that the exploration of Mars should be the next objective. What problems does this challenge pose? In the following essay we shall discuss how the absence of an life sustaining atmosphere in this planet can cause major setbacks and how one British mathematician attempted to solve this problem.

The colonization of Mars brings forth many challenges. The two primary ones being the lack of a life sustaining atmosphere in Mars and that it would take about 150 to 300 days of interstellar travel to get there, depending the amount of fuel used. Also, because Mars is so far away, there is practically no room for mistakes. Because of the distance, any error could prove fatal because if the astronauts can't fix it immediately, there is no possible way of extracting them. Therefore, first we must make a small liveable habitat for our astronauts consisting of an oxygen rich atmosphere, food and drinkable water. At least one of this problems might have been solved by John Conway.

The computer simulation better known as "Life" was created by British mathematician, John Conway. "Life" is a cell automaton simulation system. Conway hypothesized that complex life could come about naturally from simple rules or parameters. These rules are:

1. Any live cell with less than two live neighbors dies, as if caused by under-population.

2. Any live cell with two or three live neighbors lives on to the next generation.

3. Any live cell with more than three live neighbors dies, as if by overcrowding.

4. Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbors becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction. 

The setting for this program is an infinite two-dimensional orthogonal grid which only requires one input in the beginning for the "evolution" to begin. Conway noticed that when this system was accelerated, not only would it put forth different patterns, but these patterns seemed to "take life". With this discovery, John Conway concluded that life can indeed come about from simple rules, rejecting the idea that the Universe needs a creator.

In summary, the "Life" system can be used to solve the problem in Mars if we were to implement it with life-forms or robots that can turn the iron oxide or rust in the atmosphere of Mars and turn it into oxygen, all this under a dome so that the amount of oxygen needed to eventually sustain life can be achieved quicker and can be managed efficiently for the arrival of our astronauts.