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DISCUSSION

Work in pairs.

Discuss with your partner:

- What scientific achievement, discovery or invention plays an important part in our/your life.

- Why?

- How often do you use it in your everyday life?

WRITING

Write a report concerning the previous activity.

Homework

Prepare presentation.

Lesson 6

Women in science

LEAD-IN

Read the names of the different women and say what they are famous for, matching the names on the left with the professions on the right:

Julia Roberts - a scientist

Jane Austen - a mathematician

Marie Curie - a founder of the nursing profession

Sofia Kovalevskaya - a cosmonaut

Florence Nightingale - a writer

Jane Fonda - a singer

Valentina Tereshkova - a politician

Margaret Thatcher - a film star

Kylie Minogue - the creator if aerobics

So we have been discussing a lot about the contributions of famous scientists who have revolutionized science and our life. Many of these scientists have been men. However, there have been many women and other minorities who have contributed to the progress science has made. Today we are going to talk about the contributions of women scientists. One of them is Marie Curie.

READING

Dr. Marie Curie is known to the world as the scientist who discovered radioactive metals i.e. Radium & Polonium.

Marie Curie was a Polish physicist and chemist who lived between 1867-1934. Together with her husband, Pierre, she discovered two new elements (radium and polonium, two radioactive elements that they extractedchemically from pitchblended ore) and studied the x-rays they emitted. She found that the harmful properties of x-rays were able to kill tumors. By the end of World War I, Marie Curie was probably the most famous woman in the world. She had made a consciousdecision, however, not to patent methods of processing radium or its medical applications.

Marie Curie was born on November 7, 1867 in Poland and died on July 4, 1934. Her co-discovery with her husband Pierre Curie of the radioactive elements radium and polonium represents one of the best known stories in modern science for which they were recognized in 1901 with the Nobel Prize in Physics. In 1911, Marie Curie was honored with a second Nobel prize, this time in chemistry, to honor her for successfully isolating pure radium and determining radium's atomic weight.

As a child, Marie Curie amazed people with her great memory. She learned to read when she was only four years old. Her father was a professor of science and the instruments that he kept in a glass case fascinated Marie. She dreamed of becoming a scientist, but that would not be easy. Her family became very poor, and at the age of 18, Marie became a governess. She helped pay for her sister to study in Paris. Later, her sister helped Marie with her education. In 1891, Marie attended the Sorbonne University in Paris where she met and married Pierre Curie, a well-known physicist.

After the sudden accidental death of Pierre Curie, Marie Curie managed to raise her two small daughters (Irиne, who was herself awarded a Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935, and Eve who became an accomplishedauthor) and continue an active career in experimental radioactivity measurements.

Marie Curie contributed greatly to our understanding of radioactivity and the effects of x-rays. She received two Nobel prizes for her brilliant work, but died of leukemia, caused by her repeated exposure to radioactive material.

Mary Bellis, Your Guide to Inventors

Give possible synonyms or definitions to the following words or find their meaning in the dictionary:

Date: 2015-12-11; view: 1089