Science Pairs United by Love and Devoted to Science

Science Pairs United by Love and Devoted to Science

Together like protons and electrons, many famous science pairs have contributed to great scientific breakthroughs. You can have cheese and ham separately but if you put them together, it results in awesomeness! These famous science duos need each other to be able to experiment, attempt, and rejoice. You might even say that these amazing dynamic science duos should never be separated. Here are few amazing science discoveries by famous science duo in history.

1. Antoine and Marie-Anne Lavoisier

They are the most successful and famous people in science during the 18th century when there was no Nobel Prize. Antoine and Marie-Anne Lavoisier are the first of all science pairs and the first great scientists who are fondly called as the parents of modern chemistry.

The couple got married in December 1771, and the husband took advantage of the dowry of the girl who was just 13 to build a well-equipped laboratory to begin his experiments. The couple analyzed the key role played by oxygen in the respiration of plants and animals. Their experiments proved the law of conservation of mass. The science duo also discovered that water is composed of oxygen and hydrogen.

Marie-Anne is merely referred to as the wife of Lavoisier but she played a very important role in the whole research. Her knowledge in different languages like French, English, Latin allowed her to read and translate documents and theories of famous authors. Marie-Anne also drew the exact devices and formulas that were later used in the research.

Their efforts were shaken due to the French Revolution. In 1793, Lavoisier and Marie-Anne’s father were accused of being a traitor. However, her attempt to protect them were ineffective. The French Government later realized and sent her a note that read ” To the widow of Lavoisier, who was falsely convicted.”

2. Marie and Pierre Curie

Marie Curie and Pierre Curie shared their love for science and research. Pierre Curie spent a lot of time working together in a laboratory in Paris with his student Marie Sokolowski in 1894. Marie rejected Pierre’s marriage proposal and returned to her home. Pierre later sent a mail to Marie that spoke about the new research on magnetism. Marie who was interested in science and research returned to Paris from Poland and began her doctoral thesis in collaboration with Pierre. This led to the discovery of radioactivity in the year 1895. The couple later married and continued their research. They announced the discovery of two new elements polonium and radium in 1898 and spent most of the time in their unprotected research shed. Finally, in 1903 they won the Nobel Prize in Physics and Marie Curie became the first-ever woman to receive a Nobel Prize.

Marie Curie and Pierre Curie were overwhelmed with the responses they received after winning the Nobel Prize and continued their research. Pierre died in 1906 in a horse-cart accident. There were a lot of gossips and rumors about Marie for having an affair with a former student of Pierre and she also faced an angry mob and took refuge at her friend’s home.

Later, she got her second Nobel Prize and this time in Chemistry for her research on radium and its compounds. Marie Curie died due to Aplastic anemia which is known to be caused due to exposure to radioactive waves. It was also discovered that she used to carry radium test tubes in her lab coat taking a toll on her health.

3. Frederic Joliot and Irene Joliot Curie

The formula from Marie Curie and Pierre Curie passed on to the next generation where her daughter Irene and husband Frederic Joliot became one of the popular science pairs again after 32 years of winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. After the death of Pierre, Irene became Marie’s collaborator. During the first World War, the oldest of the Curie’s was just 17. Marie already installed sixty portable X-Ray units known as “Little Curies.” Irene handled radiological installation alone and married her mother’s research assistant in 1926.

Irene inherited the radioactive substances of the Curie Institute. Frederic Joliot and Irene became dynamic science duos and focused on the study of radioactive emissions and produced radioactive elements artificially. The couple worked on chain reactions and they were awarded Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935.

4. Gertie Theresa and Carl Ferdinand Cori

Gerty Theresa was born in 1896 where women weren’t allowed to become scientists. She managed to seek admission to the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Prague. She met her co-researchers and her husband Carl Ferdinand there. The couple got married after their graduation in 1920 and moved to the United States. They left Europe which was already shattered in World War I. They were permitted by Rosewell Park Cancer Institute to research on carbohydrate metabolism.

The Czech couple had an interest in learning glucose and the human body. In 1929, they proposed the Cori Cycle and they received a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1947. Cori Cycle described the mechanism in which glycogen becomes an energy source in muscle tissue and how it is stored in the body. Some universities offered Carl to publish their flagship work but they refused to offer Gerty a position until she won the Nobel Prize.

5. May-Britt and Edvard Moser

Almost after 70 years, famous science pairs May-Britt and Edvard Moser won the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the internal GPS of the brain. Along with John O’Keefe, the science duo helped the world understand the system by which the brain let us know how we are going, where we are storing information to remember the same route from the past.

The famous science pair of the 20th-century met when they were studying psychology at the University of Oslo. They redid the research that was started by O’Keefe in 1971. The Norwegian famous science duo did their research in Neuroscience.

Tell us your famous science pairs and scientific discoveries that inspire you. Also, you can check the list of 2020 Nobel Prize winners list here.