PIERRE CURIE, THE FRENCH NOBEL PRIZE IN PHYSICS

Today, The Grandma has been reading about Pierre Curie, the French physicist who died on a day like today in 1906.

Pierre Curie (15 May 1859-19 April 1906) was a French physicist, a pioneer in crystallography, magnetism, piezoelectricity, and radioactivity.

In 1903, he received the Nobel Prize in Physics with his wife, Marie Curie, and Henri Becquerel, in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel. With their win, the Curies became the first ever married couple to win the Nobel Prize, launching the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes.

Born in Paris on 15 May 1859, Pierre Curie was the son of Eugène Curie (1827–1910), a doctor of French Catholic origin from Alsace, and Sophie-Claire Curie. He was educated by his father and in his early teens showed a strong aptitude for mathematics and geometry. When he was 16, he earned his Bachelor of Science in mathematics.

By the age of 18, he earned his license, the equivalent of a U.S. masters degree, in physical sciences from the Faculty of Sciences at the Sorbonne, also known as the University of Paris.

He did not proceed immediately to a doctorate due to lack of money. Instead, he worked as a laboratory instructor. 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 1895, he went on to receive his doctorate at the University of Paris. The submission material for his doctorate consisted of his research over magnetism. After obtaining his doctorate, he became professor of physics and in 1900, he became professor in the faculty of sciences.

In 1880, Pierre and his older brother Paul-Jacques (1856-1941) demonstrated that an electric potential was generated when crystals were compressed. To aid this work they invented the piezoelectric quartz electrometer.

The following year they demonstrated the reverse effect: that crystals could be made to deform when subject to an electric field. Almost all digital electronic circuits now rely on this in the form of crystal oscillators. In subsequent work on magnetism Pierre Curie defined the Curie scale. This work also involved delicate equipment -balances, electrometers.

 More information: Nobel Prize

Pierre Curie was introduced to Maria Skłodowska by their friend, physicist Józef Wierusz-Kowalski. Curie took her into his laboratory as his student. His admiration for her grew when he realized that she would not inhibit his research. He began to regard Skłodowska as his muse. She refused his initial proposal, but finally agreed to marry him on 26 July 1895.

The Curies had a happy, affectionate marriage, and they were known for their devotion to each other.

Before his famous doctoral studies on magnetism, he designed and perfected an extremely sensitive torsion balance for measuring magnetic coefficients. Variations on this equipment were commonly used by future workers in that area. Pierre Curie studied ferromagnetism, paramagnetism, and diamagnetism for his doctoral thesis, and discovered the effect of temperature on paramagnetism which is now known as Curie's law.

The material constant in Curie's law is known as the Curie constant. He also discovered that ferromagnetic substances exhibited a critical temperature transition, above which the substances lost their ferromagnetic behavior. This is now known as the Curie temperature.

The Curie temperature is used to study plate tectonics, treat hypothermia, measure caffeine, and to understand extraterrestrial magnetic fields. The Curie is a unit of measurement used to describe the intensity of a sample of radioactive material and is named after Marie and Pierre Curie.

Pierre Curie formulated what is now known as the Curie Dissymmetry Principle: a physical effect cannot have a dissymmetry absent from its efficient cause. Introduce a gravitational field, and there is a dissymmetry because of the direction of the field. Then the sand grains can self-sort with the density increasing with depth. But this new arrangement, with the directional arrangement of sand grains, actually reflects the dissymmetry of the gravitational field that causes the separation.

Curie worked with his wife in isolating polonium and radium. They were the first to use the term radioactivity, and were pioneers in its study. Their work, including Marie Curie's celebrated doctoral work, made use of a sensitive piezoelectric electrometer constructed by Pierre and his brother Jacques Curie.

Pierre Curie's 1898 publication with his wife and M. G. Bémont for their discovery of radium and polonium was honored by a Citation for Chemical Breakthrough Award from the Division of History of Chemistry of the American Chemical Society presented to the ESPCI ParisTech, officially the École supérieure de physique et de Chimie industrielles de la Ville de Paris, in 2015.

More information: ThoughtCo

In 1903, to honor the Curies' work, the Royal Society of London invited Pierre to present their research.

Marie Curie was not permitted to give the lecture so Lord Kelvin sat beside her while Pierre spoke on their research. After this, Lord Kelvin held a luncheon for Pierre. While in London, Pierre and Marie were awarded the Davy Medal of the Royal Society of London. In the same year, Pierre and Marie Curie, as well as Henri Becquerel, were awarded a Nobel Prize in physics for their research of radioactivity.

Curie and one of his students, Albert Laborde, made the first discovery of nuclear energy, by identifying the continuous emission of heat from radium particles.

Curie also 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. These correspond to alpha, beta and gamma radiation.

The Curie is a unit of radioactivity (3.7×1010 decays per second or 37 gigabecquerels) originally named in honor of Curie by the Radiology Congress in 1910, after his death. Subsequently, there has been some controversy over whether the naming was in honor of Pierre, Marie, or both.

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

More information: Atomic Heritage

Is it right to probe so deeply into Nature's secrets?
The question must here be raised
whether it will benefit mankind,
or whether the knowledge will be harmful.

Pierre Curie

MONA DE PASQUA, EASTER MONA IN THE CATALAN LANDS

Today, The Grandma has received the wonderful visit of one of her closest friends, Claire Fontaine. Together, they have celebrated Easter eating a mona, a typical Catalan cake that is eaten on Easter Monday in the Catalan lands.

The Easter mona, in Catalan Mona de Pasqua, is a kind of cake that is usually eaten on Easter Sunday or Easter Monday in Catalonia, Balearic Islands, Valencia and Murcia.

According to the writing of Joan Amades, mentions of the mona date back to the 15th century, though in the Joan Lacavalleria's 1696 dictionary, Gazophylacium Catalano-Latinum, mona still has a purely zoological definition, meaning female monkey.

There are several hypotheses about the origin of the term:

-Munda. In the Latin plural of mundum, banners offered by the Romans to Ceres during April, containing candy and decorating.

-Muna. in ancient Arabic منى, a land tax in the form of an offering of cakes, boiled eggs or other agricultural products, literally meaning gift or provision of the mouth.

-Munichia. Celebration dedicated to Artemis in ancient Greece.

More information: Catalunya

The tradition is often traced back to feasts that Roman shepherds celebrated with cakes or the Beltane, a Celtic festival that was celebrated in the month of May and where pastries with eggs were consumed.

Nowadays, the mona comes in all shapes and sizes, when previously they were generally round, like a rosca. Initially, the mona was a cake made with sugar or other sweeteners, and contained hard boiled eggs. However, in most parts of Catalonia over time the eggs were replaced by chocolate, and it eventually became the focus of the mona.

In Valencia and Murcia, on the other hand, the recipe has not changed and still has the original form of a pastry with the hard-boiled egg on it. Currently in Valencia, the Easter mona can be found with a hard-boiled egg on top or with an egg-white caramel, which is cooked along with the mona. In Valencia there are areas where the mona is typical all year, without the hard-boiled egg on it, but it often has different names such as tonya, panou, pa socarrat, and coca bova, among other alternatives.

In almost all Catalonia, Balearic Islands and Valencia, it is customary for godparents to give the mona to their godchild on Easter Sunday.

On Easter Monday, families or groups of friends gather together and go somewhere, especially the countryside, to eat the mona. Traditionally, the age of the children was reflected in the number of eggs in the mona, until they were 12 years old. Currently, it is common for godparents to give the mona to their godchildren throughout their lives.

The Easter mona tradition is tied to that of bakers, who now make real works of art with pastry and chocolate, and since the mid-nineteenth century, mones have lost their initial simplicity, making their presentation more complex, for they must be elaborated with caramelized sugar, sugar almonds, jams, crunchy toppings, silver anise and, of course, before being decorated with painted Easter eggs or figures made from porcelain, wood, cardboard or fabric.

More information: Barcelona

 Every Easter, at one household or another,
I find a battle begins and the conversation
of how to 'properly eat' a chocolate bunny.

Hilary Farr

EARL SILAS JOHNSON IV, THE BLUES KING OF LOUISIANA

Today, The Grandma has been listening some music. She has chosen Early King, the American singer, guitarist, and songwriter, who died on a day like today in 2003.

Earl Silas Johnson IV (February 7, 1934-April 17, 2003), known as Earl King, was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter, most active in blues music.

A composer of blues standards such as Come On (covered by Jimi Hendrix, Freddie King, Stevie Ray Vaughan) and Big Chief (recorded by Professor Longhair), he was an important figure in New Orleans R&B.

King was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. His father was a piano player. He died when Earl was still a baby, and Earl was brought up by his mother. With his mother, he started going to church at an early age. In his youth he sang gospel music, but he took the advice of a friend to switch to blues to make a better living.

King started to play the guitar at the age of 15. Soon he started entering talent contests at local clubs, including the Dew Drop Inn. At one such club he met his idol, Guitar Slim.

King started imitating Slim, and his presence had a big impact on his musical direction. In 1954, Slim was injured in an automobile accident, right around the time he had the number 1 R&B hit The Things That I Used To Do, and King was deputized to continue a tour with Slim's band, representing himself as Slim. After succeeding in this role, King became a regular at the Dew Drop Inn.

More information: Los Angeles Times

His first recording was made in 1953. As Earl Johnson, he released a 78-rpm record, Have You Gone Crazy/Begging at Your Mercy, for Savoy Records.

The following year, the talent scout Johnny Vincent introduced King to Specialty Records, for which he recorded some sides, including Mother's Love, which was locally popular. In 1955, King signed with Vincent's label, Ace.

His first single for that label, Those Lonely, Lonely Nights, was a hit, reaching number 7 on the Billboard R&B chart. He continued to record for Ace for the next five years. During that time, he also he started writing songs for other artists, such as Roland Stone and Jimmy Clanton.

In 1960, Dave Bartholomew invited King to record for Imperial Records. In sessions for that label, he was backed by a host of musicians, including Bob French, George French, James Booker, and Wardell Quezergue. It was at this label he recorded his signature songs Come On and Trick Bag.

The former has been a much-covered standard for decades, notably recorded by Jimi Hendrix, Stevie Ray Vaughan and Anson Funderburgh. The latter has also been widely covered, with versions by Johnny Winter, the Meters and Robert Palmer. King co-wrote a number of songs with Bartholomew, either under his own name or under the pseudonym E.C. King.

King recorded for Imperial until 1963. He went without a recording contract for the rest of the 1960s. During this time, he mostly concentrated on producing and songwriting for the local labels NOLA and Watch. His compositions from this era include Big Chief, recorded by Professor Longhair; Teasin' You, recorded by Willie Tee; and Do-Re-Mi, recorded by Lee Dorsey.

He went to Detroit for an audition with Motown Records and recorded a few tracks in the mid-1960s. Three tracks from that session are included on the album Motown's Blue Evolution, released in 1996.

More information: The Bitter Southerner

In 1972, he was joined by Allen Toussaint and the Meters to record the album Street Parade. Atlantic Records initially showed interest in releasing it but eventually declined. The title track was released as a single on the Kansu label at the time, but the rest was unrelesed until 1982, when the album was issued by Charly Records in the UK.

In the 1970s, he recorded another album, That Good Old New New Orleans Rock 'n Roll, which was released by Sonet in 1977. He also appeared on the album New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival 1976.

In the early 1980s, King met Hammond Scott, the co-owner of Black Top Records, and started to record for the label.

The first album Glazed, on which he was backed by Roomful of Blues, was released in 1986. This particular album was nominated for a Grammy Award. A second album, Sexual Telepathy, released in 1990, featured Snooks Eaglin on two tracks and backing by Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters on some tracks. He recorded his third album for Black Top, Hard River to Cross (1993), with backing by George Porter, Jr., David Torkanowsky, and Herman V. Ernest III.

In 2001, King was hospitalized for an illness during a tour of New Zealand, but that did not stop him from performing. In December of the same year, he toured Japan, and he continued to perform off and on locally in New Orleans until his death.

King died on April 17, 2003, from diabetes-related complications, just a week before the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival. His funeral was held on April 30, during the festival, and many musicians attended it, including Dr. John, Leo Nocentelli and Aaron Neville.

His Imperial recordings, which had long been out of print, were reissued on CD soon after he died. The June 2003 issue of OffBeat, a local music magazine, paid tribute to King with a series of articles on him.

More information: Owl Tail

Most people say, 'Well, Earl, you sing the blues,'
or however they want to categorize it.
I just sing songs.

Earl King

LUKAS HAAS, FROM WITNESS TO A GREAT MUSIC CAREER

Today, The Grandma has been watching one of her favourite films, Witness, interpreted by Harrison Ford, Kelly McGillis and Lukas Haas, the young actor and musician, who was born on a day like today in 1976.

Lukas Daniel Haas (born April 16, 1976) is an American actor and musician. His acting career has spanned four decades, during which he has appeared in more than 50 feature films and a number of television shows and stage productions.

Haas was born in West Hollywood, California, the son of Berthold Haas, an artist, and Emily Tracy, an author. His mother is from Texas, and his father emigrated from Germany. He has two brothers: twins Simon Jakoway Haas and Nikolai Johannes Haas, both designers.

Haas was discovered at the age of five in his kindergarten by casting director Margery Simkin. His first screen role was as a child in the 1983 nuclear holocaust film Testament. He became more widely known in 1985 when, at the age of eight, he appeared in Witness. His performance as an Amish boy who is the sole witness to a police officer's murder was well received by critics.

Haas followed this with roles in films such as Lady in White and Solarbabies. In 1989, he appeared in the film Music Box, as the 12-year-old son of Jessica Lange's character, and grandson of an immigrant who is accused of being a war criminal. For this role he was nominated for the Young Artist Award. He also starred in the films Alan and Naomi and Rambling Rose.

Haas received an Emmy nomination for his portrayal of Ryan White in the television movie The Ryan White Story, about an American teenager who contracted AIDS through contaminated blood treatments for hemophilia. On stage in 1988, he performed in Samuel Beckett's Waiting for Godot at Lincoln Center in New York City.

He went on to appear in Everyone Says I Love You, Mars Attacks!, and Breakfast of Champions. His work in the 2000s includes Brick, Last Days, and While She Was Out.

More information: Facebook-Lukas Haas

Haas also gained recognition for his portrayal of The Patient in the music video for the My Chemical Romance song Welcome to the Black Parade.

In March 2010, Haas was inducted into the Texas Film Hall of Fame. More recently he appeared in Red Riding Hood, Contraband and Christopher Nolan's Inception. He has made guest appearances in Amazing Stories, both the 1985 and the 2002 versions of The Twilight Zone, The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles, As Told by Ginger, The Zeta Project, 24, Criminal Minds, Dirt and Entourage. He had a role on the 2012 television series Touch.

During 2014 he co-starred also in the horror film Dark Was the Night.

In 2018, Haas played astronaut Michael Collins, the Apollo 11 Command Module Pilot, in First Man, a film about the first human moon landing space flight in 1969. The film was directed by Damien Chazelle, with whom he'll reunite in the 2022 film Babylon.

Haas is the drummer and pianist for The Rogues. He has composed parts of several film soundtracks, including Breakfast of Champions and Last Days, and performed as a guest musician on the Macy Gray album The Trouble with Being Myself and the Jet album Shaka Rock.

In 2008, he released a solo EP. He appeared in the music videos for OutKast's Roses, My Chemical Romance's Welcome to the Black Parade, UGK's International Player's Anthem (I Choose You), Death Cab For Cutie's Cath…,"and Jet's She's a Genius.

On February 25, 2011, the media announced that Haas had released a musical collaboration with Isabel Lucas called Made for You. The recorded and video clip were filmed in Lukas' LA studio, and were later revealed to be a marketing campaign of the Portuguese band The Gift for their album Explode.

More information: Instagram-Lukas Haas

 I like both music and acting,
and they both have a lot in common
-timing, immediacy, stuff like that.
But acting is more regimented.
You wait around for hours,
you don't get to write the script,
you get hired.
Music represents me better.
I'm not acting; I'm just expressing myself.

Lukas Haas

LA GRANJA D'ESCARP, A CISTERCIAN TOWN SINCE 1213

Today, The Grandma has visited La Granja d'Escarp, a beautiful Catalan town, to say goodbye to Jordi, a great friend of her.

La Granja d'Escarp is a municipality in the comarca of the Segrià in Catalonia. The town is located at the confluence of the Segre and Cinca rivers.

The monastery of La Granja d'Escarp was founded by Cistercian monks in 1213. 

La Granja d'Escarp has lost some population since year 1920 when it reached a peak of 1,366 inhabitants.

The economy is based on the produce of fruit trees growing in irrigated fields. The area enjoyed some prosperity in the past owing to nearby coal mines.

More information: Ajuntament de La Granja d'Escarp

The Cistercians, officially the Order of Cistercians, in Latin Sacer Ordo Cisterciensis, are a Catholic religious order of monks and nuns that branched off from the Benedictines and follow the Rule of Saint Benedict.

They are also known as Bernardines, after the highly influential Bernard of Clairvaux or as White Monks, in reference to the colour of the cuculla or cowl (choir robe) worn by the Cistercians over their habits, as opposed to the black cowl worn by Benedictines.

The term Cistercian derives from Cistercium, the Latin name for the locale of Cîteaux, near Dijon in eastern France. It was here that a group of Benedictine monks from the monastery of Molesme founded Cîteaux Abbey in 1098, with the goal of following more closely the Rule of Saint Benedict.

The best known of them were Robert of Molesme, Alberic of Cîteaux and the English monk Stephen Harding, who were the first three abbots. Bernard of Clairvaux entered the monastery in the early 1110s with 30 companions and helped the rapid proliferation of the order.

By the end of the 12th century, the order had spread throughout what is today France, Germany, England, Wales, Scotland, Ireland, Catalonia, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.

The keynote of Cistercian life was a return to literal observance of the Benedictine Rule. Rejecting some of the developments, the reform-minded monks tried to live monastic life as they thought it had been in Saint Benedict's time; in various points they went beyond it in austerity. The most striking feature in the reform was the return to manual labour, especially agricultural work in the fields, a special characteristic of Cistercian life.

The Cistercians also made major contributions to culture and technology in medieval Europe: Cistercian architecture is considered one of the most beautiful styles of medieval architecture; and the Cistercians were the main force of technological diffusion in fields such as agriculture and hydraulic engineering.

Many abbeys traditionally supported themselves through agriculture, vineyards, and brewing ales. Over the centuries, however, education and scholarship came to dominate the life of many monasteries. A reform movement seeking a simpler lifestyle began in 17th-century France at La Trappe Abbey, and became known as the Trappists. The Trappists were eventually consolidated in 1892 into a new order called the Order of Cistercians of the Strict Observance

More information: Council of Europe

 We find rest in those we love,
and we provide a resting place
in ourselves for those who love us.

Bernard of Clairvaux

SI M'ANOMENES EXISTEIXO, SI EM RECORDES PERVISC

 Desperta, és un nou dia,
la llum
del sol llevant, vell guia
pels quiets camins de fum.
No deixis res
per caminar i mirar fins al ponent.
Car tot, en un moment,
et serà pres.

Salvador Espriu

 

1943, THE JEFFERSON MEMORIAL IN WASHINGTON, D.C.

Today, The Grandma has remembered the last time she visited Washington, D.C., one of the most beautiful cities of the United States of America.

 

She enjoyed the city, and she visited all the important monuments, especially the Jefferson Memorial, the presidential memorial that was dedicated on the 200th anniversary of President Thomas Jefferson's birth.

The Jefferson Memorial is a presidential memorial built in Washington, D.C. between 1939 and 1943 under the sponsorship of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt thought that it was a suitable memorial to the Founding Fathers of the United States and to Thomas Jefferson, the principal author of the United States Declaration of Independence and the founder of the Democratic-Republican Party.

The neoclassical building is situated in West Potomac Park on the shore of the Potomac River. It was designed by John Russell Pope and built by Philadelphia contractor John McShain. Construction began in 1939 and was completed in 1943.

The bronze statue of Jefferson was added in 1947. Pope made references to the Roman Pantheon whose designer was Apollodorus of Damascus, and to Jefferson's own design for the rotunda at the University of Virginia.

The Jefferson Memorial and the White House form one of the main anchor points in the area of the National Mall in D.C. 

The Washington Monument was intended to be located at the intersection of the White House and the site for the Jefferson Memorial, but soft swampy ground required that it be situated to the east.

The national memorial is managed by the National Park Service of the Department of the Interior under its National Mall and Memorial Parks division.

In 2007, it was ranked fourth on the List of America's Favorite Architecture by the American Institute of Architects.

It became apparent that the site was well suited for another high-profile memorial since it sat directly south of the White House. By 1901 the Senate Park Commission, better known as the McMillan Commission, had proposed placing a Pantheon-like structure on the site hosting the statues of the illustrious men of the nation, or whether the memory of some individual shall be honored by a monument of the first rank may be left to the future; no action was ever taken by Congress on this issue.

More information: NPS

The completion of the Tidal Basin Inlet Bridge in 1908 helped to facilitate the recreational usage of East and West Potomac Parks. In 1918, large liquid-chlorine dispensers were installed under the bridge to treat the water and make the Tidal Basin, also known as Twining Lake, suitable for swimming.

The Tidal Basin Beach, on the site of the future Memorial, opened in May 1918 and operated as a Whites Only facility until 1925, when it was permanently closed to avoid the question of racial integration.

A design competition was held for a memorial to Theodore Roosevelt in 1925. The winning design was submitted by John Russell Pope and consisted of a half-circle memorial situated next to a circular basin. The plan was never funded by Congress and was not built.

The Memorial's chance came in 1934 when President Franklin Roosevelt, an admirer of Jefferson, in large part because of the book on Jefferson by his friend Claude G. Bowers, inquired to the Commission of Fine Arts about the possibility of erecting a memorial to Jefferson, including it in the plans for the Federal Triangle project, which was under construction at the time.

Later the same year, Congressman John J. Boylan followed FDR's lead and urged Congress to create the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Commission. Boylan was appointed the Commission's first chairman and Congress eventually appropriated $3 million for a memorial to Jefferson.

The Commission chose John Russell Pope as the architect in 1935. Pope was also the architect of the National Archives Building and original (west) building of the National Gallery of Art. He prepared four different plans for the project, each on a different site. One was on the Anacostia River at the end of East Capitol Street; one at Lincoln Park; one on the south side of the National Mall across from the National Archives; and one situated on the Tidal Basin, directly south of the White House.

The Commission preferred the site on the Tidal Basin mainly because it was the most prominent site and because it completed the four-point plan called for by the McMillan Commission (Lincoln Memorial to the Capitol; White House to the Tidal Basin site). Pope designed a very large pantheon-like structure, to sit on a square platform, and to be flanked by two smaller, rectangular, colonnaded buildings.

The site of the monument is in West Potomac Park, in Washington, D.C., on the shore of the Potomac River Tidal Basin, and is enhanced with the massed planting of Japanese cherry trees, a gift from the people of Japan in 1912.

Although the Jefferson Memorial is geographically removed from other buildings and monuments in Washington, D.C., as well as from the National Mall and the Washington Metro, it plays host to many events and ceremonies each year, including memorial exercises, the Easter Sunrise Service, and the annual National Cherry Blossom Festival.

More information: Washington, D.C.

I like the dreams of the future better

than the history of the past.

Thomas Jefferson