Have you ever wondered what makes a rainbow? This is a question that many children wonder about, and now, most parents have a ready answer (though some might encourage you to guess anyways!). But in the past, people didn’t know how these beautiful arcs of color formed in the sky. Some people were curious enough to ask why, but until the 1600s, no one did much more than make thoughtful guesses. It would take a mind nearly as bright as the sun to solve that and many other mysteries of how nature works. His discoveries paved the way for the modern fields of physics, astronomy, and math.

Early Life of Isaac Newton 

The person who discovered what makes a rainbow was born into a rather dull world. Isaac Newton’s story begins on a sheep farm surrounded by apple orchards in rural England on Christmas day in 1642. Born prematurely to a poor family, no one expected the sickly infant to survive, but he did! Unfortunately, his father wasn’t so lucky. While little Isaac would live to be 84 years old, his father died three months before he was born. Isaac’s mother remarried to a well-off minister when he was two years old. Isaac never liked his stepfather and lived with his grandparents for much of his early childhood.

Isaac’s mind was so bright and active that he needed little else to hold his interest in the quiet hamlet where he lived. He wanted to know how the world worked and found all kinds of questions to occupy his mind. His mother, however, didn’t see much value in education, and after sending him to school briefly, pulled him out and tried to get him to help with the farm work. Isaac hated farm work–it kept him from exploring the many big questions about the world that flooded his head. Fortunately, Isaac’s uncle and his teacher both saw what a brilliant intellect he possessed. Seeing how poorly Isaac performed as a farmhand, his mother eventually took their advice and sent her son back to school. 

Isaac flourished in school, where he studied Latin, Greek, and mathematics. When he had learned all he could at the local school, he headed off to Cambridge University. He mostly ignored his fellow students, even his roommate, and spent most of his time alone in his room. There he could let his mind play– with the ideas of the ancient philosophers, the observations of famous astronomers, and complicated mathematical formulae. His books, his quill pen, and the shadows creeping across the walls seemed to be the only company he needed as he delved into these subjects in a search for truth. 

After graduating from Cambridge, Isaac returned home for two years. An outbreak of bubonic plague was sweeping England, and he felt it was best to isolate himself. This also suited Isaac’s preferences. He finally had an excuse to spend all his time alone in his studies, and he took full advantage. He spent his days reading, calculating, and setting up experiments.

Isaac Newton’s Experiments

Some of Isaac’s experiments didn’t work out. He tried to concoct a cure for the plague using rose water and turpentine, but it didn’t work. He also dabbled in alchemy, attempting to create gold from other, non-precious materials, a hobby he would come back to many times over his life. We now know this is impossible, but many people at the time thought it could be done.

Isaac’s experiments with light had better outcomes. He was fascinated by prisms, crystals shaped like triangles that create rainbows when light shines through them. Isaac was curious why this happened. Most people at the time thought that prisms somehow “corrupted” white light, adding in the colors of the rainbow, but Isaac suspected this wasn’t true. His experiments led him to the conclusion that plain white light from the sun was actually made up of all these different colors, and the prism split them apart. 

In one experiment, Isaac set up three prisms in a row so that light from a window would shine through them, but their rainbow colors would overlap on the edges. Where the broken-up light from different prisms overlapped, the wall was white! The colors had mixed again into white light! He also lined up two prisms, putting a wall with a hole between them. He set up the first prism so that only the red light from the rainbow hit the hole in the wall and went on to hit the second prism. The red light passed through the second prism, hitting another wall beyond. This light couldn’t be broken up anymore, and of course, the second prism didn’t “add” colors to it, which should have happened if prisms worked the way other people thought. If Isaac rotated the first prism slightly, he could direct the blue, or yellow, or orange light to pass through the hole and onto the second prism. With each color he tried, the light hit at a different point on the final wall after passing through the second prism! Each color bent at its own special angle when it passed through the prism. 

These were simple experiments–you could even ask your parents to buy some inexpensive prisms and try them yourself. Some of his experiments I wouldn’t recommend trying at home. He also tried to find out if he could see the rainbow colors of light by pushing on the back of his eyeball with a long, blunt sewing needle. Again, don’t try this at home! Still, Isaac’s unique mind let him imagine new ways to explore how light really worked instead of just believing what others had said before. 

But, if you’ve heard one story about Isaac Newton before now, it’s probably about how he discovered gravity. That story recounts how an apple fell on his head and led him to the idea that there was a special force called gravity. This is also the story that Isaac liked to tell about the discovery! Gravity, Isaac theorized, is the force that makes larger objects, like the earth, pull smaller objects, like you and me and the apple, toward them. All objects, even very small ones, have gravity, but small objects only have a tiny bit compared to something as massive as the Earth. Isaac realized that gravity could explain not only the apple falling from the tree, but also the orbits of the moon and planets.

The idea of gravity led Isaac to think in new ways about how objects move. He experimented with motion and force, and formulated his three famous laws of motion based on these experiments. The first law was that if an object is at rest, or standing still, it would stay that way unless something came along and pushed or pulled it. Likewise, if an object was moving, it would keep moving in a straight line unless, again, something pushed or pulled it to make it stop. These pushes and pulls are called “forces.” The second law says that how much an object speeds up has to do with both how strong of a force is applied and how heavy the object is. Finally, his third law says that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In other words, forces come in pairs. Imagine you and a friend are ice skating. If you face each other, put your palms together, and push, both of you will be propelled backward. If you’re about the same size, both of you will go about the same distance. But if one of you is much bigger, the smaller person will go back farther and faster. 

Newton’s Explorations in Mathematics

Isaac also worked out the math that explained his laws. Some of this math was fairly simple, but when it came to explaining gravity and the orbits of planets things got complicated. In fact, he developed a new branch of math called calculus to explain what he was seeing. Calculus is a kind of math used to describe things that are continuously changing, getting faster and slower. Think of the curve that a ball follows through the air when you throw it, or how fast a rocket is going at any given time as it blasts into space. These actions involve motions and forces and objects that are different weights and sizes. They get faster or slow down at different times. Very complicated! 

Isaac Newton didn’t share his discoveries about calculus for a long time. He didn’t enjoy the attention his big discoveries brought him, and may have wanted to avoid it. He just wanted to discover the truth about how the universe worked. When he finally did tell people about it, another mathematician named Gottfried Leibniz had also come up with the same kind of math!  Newton and Leibniz would both argue that they were first, but it didn’t really matter. Both were very smart and had come up with the ideas on their own. 

After the plague died down, Isaac returned to Cambridge and became professor. He continued to spend most of his time studying and experimenting. He often ignored his own needs while deep in thought and study. He’d stay up late at night thinking, writing and experimenting. When he did sleep, he usually didn’t change into pajamas, and he went days without combing his hair. He ate simple meals of porridge or milk and eggs, and at times ate only foods from vegetables. 

Isaac Newton’s Later Life

As Isaac got older, he began to take on some new and unexpected responsibilities. He was chosen to represent Cambridge University in Parliament, which is part of the government. True to his introverted nature, he rarely spoke up in debates. Later, he was chosen to run the Royal Mint, which was the part of the government that made money. 

Isaac liked the capital, London, and moved there. Although he was never on good terms with his half-siblings from his mother’s second marriage, it seems he liked his nieces and nephews. He lived with his niece, Catherine Barton for many years, and left his papers and journals to her. He split the rest of his belongings between all his nieces and nephews.

Isaac Newton once wrote that truth was his greatest friend. Few people–if any–have contributed as much to scientific discovery as he did. We’ve only touched the surface of all his accomplishments. His work in calculus and physics launched an entirely new era in science. He set an example for future scientists by carefully designing experiments to answer very specific questions. His laws of motion helped later scientists send people to space on rockets and return them to Earth safely. He scrutinized the natural world and challenged assumptions about how things worked. The truth was his greatest friend, but he also proved himself a great friend to truth. 

Sources

https://www.coolkidfacts.com/laws-of-motion/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton

https://www.wondriumdaily.com/the-discovery-of-gravity-and-laws-of-motion-by-isaac-newton/

Krull, Kathleen (2013) Lives of the Scientists: Experiments, Explosions (and what the Neighbors Thought). Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York.

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Everyone spends time learning what they like, and what they’re capable of. Sometimes, they learn that what they are capable of isn’t what they like, and something else is calling them. That happened to Sally Ride.

Early Years of Sally Ride

Before we can get to what happened though, let’s go back to Southern California in the year 1951. This was the year Sally was born to Dale and Carol Ride. As a child, Sally’s dream job was to play baseball for the Los Angeles Dodgers. She was athletic, and was often chosen first for baseball teams. Of course, no women played major league baseball at the time, but this didn’t matter to Sally. Dale and Carol raised her and her sister, who was nicknamed Bear, to explore and try anything that interested them. To Sally, this meant playing sports and stargazing through a telescope with her father. Her favorite constellation was Orion. Many people in the 1950s thought of these as “boy” things, but Sally knew they were also girl things.

Sally Ride and Tennis

When she was nine, Sally’s family traveled to Europe. Between seeing the amazing sites, Sally played tennis for the first time on the trip. Just like that, Sally was hooked. Tennis became the center of her life. When they got back to the United States, Dale and Carol got Sally a tennis coach and she began competing. Before long, she was ranked in the top 20 players under 12 in Southern California! 

Tennis also opened doors for Sally. A private high school gave her a scholarship to play for their team. In high school, Sally rediscovered her love of science. One teacher, Dr. Elizabeth Mommaerts, helped her see that there were opportunities for her in science. At the time, there weren’t many women who got advanced degrees in science, but Dr. Mommaerts had a PhD in human physiology. Sally was amazed by how smart and curious her teacher was, and how she approached every problem carefully and methodically, like a puzzle. 

After high school, tennis again helped Sally find a place at school. She headed to Swarthmore College to study physics and play on the tennis team. Soon after arriving though, Sally’s mind began to wander to new possibilities. She was excelling at tennis: she won all her college matches, and even became the Eastern Intercollegiate Women’s Singles champion! Sally decided she wanted to try to become a professional tennis player. She packed up her bags and left Pennsylvania to return to Southern California. 

Back in sunny California, Sally practiced every day for hours, year-round. But soon, she realized that she’d need to train even more in order to make it as a pro. Her body ached. She was tired. Playing tennis wasn’t as fun when she had to do it eight hours a day in order to compete. Sally decided to return to college full time. 

Collegiate Life of Sally Ride

Sally headed to Stanford University, about a six hour drive from Los Angeles. There, she reacquainted herself with her other childhood passion: science. She studied physics: how stars and planets work, and even lasers! 

This time, Sally was sure she’d made the right choice about her future. In fact, she stayed at Stanford an extra five years to earn her PhD in physics. 

But even as Sally focused more on physics, she was still open to new opportunities. One morning in 1977, shortly before she finished her PhD, a huge opportunity stared her in the face when she opened her morning paper. It was the kind of opportunity that made all her past hobbies and interests fall into place. Even though she never could have known this opportunity would come along, it was perfect for Sally’s background as a sports-loving physicist. 

It was an ad. NASA was recruiting new astronauts to fly in the space shuttle program. And for the first time, they were accepting applications from women. Sally had expected to get a job as a college teacher. But the chance to be an astronaut doesn’t come along every day, and Sally was excited by the possibility of actually visiting space, after studying the stars and planets and gazing up at Orion on so many nights. And, astronauts need to be in great physical shape too. All her years of playing tennis would be an advantage too. 

NASA was a bit overdue in sending women to space. In fact, all the astronauts until this time had been white men, mostly Air Force pilots. Russia had sent a woman to space in 1963! Now, in addition to recruiting pilots, NASA was opening the astronaut program to anyone with training in science or engineering.  They got thousands of applications! Out of all those applicants, Sally and five other women were chosen to train as astronauts! Not only were the first women chosen to be part of the space shuttle program, the class of 35 men and women included the first Asian American and African American astronauts.

Sally at NASA

Sally began her training in 1979. NASA was impressed by Sally. She was athletic and strong, committed and smart. Years of playing competitive tennis had taught her how to keep cool under pressure. 

But even though Sally had the right stuff to be an astronaut, there was a lot to learn! She had to know space shuttle systems inside and out. She learned about geology, oceanography, and computer science, since she would need to perform all sorts of experiments in space. The astronaut candidates learned to fly supersonic jets, though most of them wouldn’t actually need to fly the shuttle–NASA still used professional pilots for that–it was important to know how it worked in case there was ever an emergency. 

Off to Space for Sally Ride!

Finally, in 1982, after years of training and working on projects and shuttle missions from the ground, Sally got the call that all astronauts are eager for. NASA had assigned her to a mission. She would go to space in 1983 as a mission specialist on the space shuttle Challenger. 

Sally would have a whole year to prepare for the mission. As part of her work on the ground for NASA, Sally had helped design a robotic arm that would move things like satellites in and out of the space shuttle’s cargo bay. On her mission, Sally would use the arm to place a satellite outside in space. It would fly alongside the shuttle for a few hours, taking pictures and doing experiments. Then, Sally would use the robotic arm to grab the satellite and pull it back into the shuttle.

It was an exciting project for Sally, but she was disappointed to find that news reporters weren’t very interested in it. Instead, they always asked her questions about what it would be like for a woman in space. Would she wear makeup in space? Would she be able to have children after going into space? Would she cry if she made a mistake? Understandably, Sally found these questions annoying at best, even insulting. Why couldn’t reporters ask her about the actual mission–the science she’d be doing, or the amazing robotic arm she’d designed–instead of obsessing over her gender? 

But Sally kept her focus on training and ignored the rude questions. She made sure she knew every step of every task she needed to do during launch, in space, and on landing. On June 18th, 1983, Sally was ready to lift off! 

The mission was a success: the crew performed experiments, and the robotic arm worked beautifully. But besides conducting experiments and gaining experience in space, Sally realized something far more profound. As she looked out the space shuttle window for the first time, she noticed something that astonished her: 

“…it looked as if someone had taken a royal blue crayon and just traced along the Earth’s horizon. And then I realized that that blue line, that really thin royal blue line, was Earth’s atmosphere, and that was all there was of it. And it’s so clear from that perspective how fragile our existence is.” 

Challenger Mission

Sally flew on another mission two years later, again on Challenger. Sally hoped she’d be able to fly again after her second mission, but in 1986 a terrible tragedy threw her hopes, and the whole shuttle program, into doubt. The space shuttle Challenger, which Sally had flown on twice, exploded a few minutes after lift-off. Seven astronauts were killed, including some Sally had trained with. Sally was devastated, but she was also one of the best people to help figure out what went wrong. NASA canceled all its space shuttle missions for years while Sally and a committee of other experts investigated the accident. They found that cold weather that morning in Florida caused a part to break during the flight. 

By this time, Sally realized she would probably never fly on another mission. She stayed at NASA another year after the investigation, helping them plan for the future. But in 1987, she realized it was time to leave. 

Sally went back to Stanford University to work as a physics professor. She also reconnected with a childhood friend, Tam O’Shaugnessy. The two fell in love, and would spend the next 27 years together. Tam was also a scientist–a biologist–and she loved sports and exercise too. Sally and Tam also shared a passion for encouraging children, especially girls, to explore science and technology. They wrote books and started a foundation together that offered science summer camps and science festivals. Sally even started a program that let kids in middle school control a satellite launched into space on the shuttle, taking pictures of earth from hundreds of miles above the ground. 

Sally’s Death

In 2011, Sally learned she had pancreatic cancer. After battling the disease for over a year, she passed away at home in California. A year later, President Obama awarded Sally a Presidential Medal of Honor for her accomplishments. Tam accepted the award on her behalf.

People change their minds sometimes about what they want to do. New dreams take hold. But the most important thing to do if you want to make a dream come true is to act. Find out what you need to do to actually make that dream a reality and do it! You may find that you don’t like the doing as much as the dream, just like Sally Ride did with pro tennis. But, like Sally, if you try enough things, eventually you’ll find the right thing for you. And you never know when an opportunity will come along that requires your unique combination of talents, skills, and knowledge. So keep exploring!

Sources

https://rvsallyride.ucsd.edu/legacy/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sally_Ride

Abawi, Atia (2021) She Persisted: Sally Ride. Philomel Books, New York.

Macy, Sue (2014) Sally Ride: Life on a Mission. Aladdin, New York.

The post History of Sally Ride for Kids appeared first on Bedtime History: Podcast and Videos For Kids.

Have you ever traveled in an airplane? Imagine if you had to make that same trip in a car. It would have taken a lot longer, right? Even just a hundred years ago most people didn’t have access to airplanes. They had to use horses, trains, or sometimes cars to get around, but for most people getting from here to there in a plane was still a thing of the future. 

Did you know around 100,000 flights happen every day! And around 6 million people fly every day! Those are huge numbers! Aircraft have revolutionized travel across the world. I remember the last flight I went on, and in just a few hours I had gone from Arizona all the way down to Costa Rica. It still blows my mind to think about it! I can still picture my kids’ faces the first time they’ve had the chance to fly. They are nervous when we take off, but then they smile after we are in the air and look out the window at the ground as it grows smaller and smaller below. And then I imagine what the world would be like without airplanes. It makes me very grateful that some very determined people dedicated their lives to figuring out the miracle of flight.

In this episode, we are going to talk about two brothers who invented the first airplane and took humans to the sky — Wilbur and Orville Wright, also known as the Wright Brothers. 

Interestingly, in 1891, the different brothers were putting the final touches on their 15 meters long-winged Glider in Germany.

One brother was named Otto Lilienthal. He was attracted to the sky when he first saw a bird on the shores of the Baltic Sea in northern Germany. Otto’s brother, Gustav Lilienthal’s heart, was on the ground, but his mind was in the sky. Both brothers were engineers and had a strong desire to fly.

Climbing on a high hill, Otto Lilienthal hung himself under the Glider and ran into the wind. Four seconds later, he was floating in the air. He was flying! Little did he know, his glider flight would go down in history as the first recorded year someone flew.

News of these thrilling experiments made it into the newspapers of Europe and America. In those times, the question, “Can a human fly like a bird?” was a matter of great discussion.

Two American brothers, Orville and Wilbur, the Wright brothers, heard about the news of the first glider flight and were very interested. At the time the Wright Brothers were running a bicycle repair shop in Dayton, USA.

One day, Orville Wright fell ill and was still bedridden in the morning. Sunday’s newspaper came with front-page news titled “Glider had suddenly crashed in a strong wind, killing Otto Lilienthal.”

Orville was sad to hear about the inventor who had first flown the glider. Wilbur Wright, three years older than Orville, was also shocked. The hard work and sacrifices of the other brothers in Germany inspired and challenged the Wright Brothers to create their own airplane.

The Wright brothers didn’t want to make any hasty efforts. First, Wilbur Wright wrote a letter to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington asking for materials on aeronautics and mechanics. The institute was collecting research papers as well as books on scientific experiments taking place around the world.

The Smithsonian Institution replied positively. The natural wind that can lift an aerial vehicle can only be found on the coast, so the Wright Brothers left Ohio and moved to the coastal state of North Carolina in 1900, where they camped on a hilly shore called Kitty Hawk.

The Wright Brothers set up a Glider-making workshop there. Next to it, they even built a small house with all basic furnishing. This extended plan was not a hobby; their plan was to stay at the testing ground until they had achieved their goal.

Can you believe that the world’s first self-powered aircraft – which they called Flyer-1, was built in less than two months!? Today, if we looked at the Flyer-1 design, it looked like a dragonfly and was a pretty fragile plane — which means it could break easily. But you can’t help but admire Orville and Wilbur Wright’s intellect and talent after learning about the technology they designed in the Flyer-1’s structure.

The main component of the Flyer-1 was its engine. Since The Wright Brothers couldn’t find the right automobile engine for the Flyer-1, they decided to build a new one. Orville and Wilbur used a four-cylinder gasoline engine after considering the aircraft’s size, weight, and dimension. The Flyer-1 engine weighed 178-pound with 12 horsepower. 

After examining several types of wood, Wilbur and Orville decided to use giant Spruce wood for the Flyer-1. The wood was pretty light yet strong. After forming a skeleton-like framework, they covered it tightly with a muslin cloth.

Can you believe that the Flayer-1 had no spark plug, cockpit, no carburetor to pour gasoline into the engine, and no water pump for cooling? Probably, the biggest shocker is that the plane had no wheels!! But Flayer-1 had one thing, that was the genius of two brothers. They overcame every challenge with brilliancy and common sense.

For example, to make up for the lack of wheels, Wright Brothers set up a four-piece wooden plank in a row like a train track. They made a dolly and set the plane on it. The idea was that when the dolly carrying the plane runs on the 18-meter long track, the dolly stays on the ground while the plane shoots into the sky.

After much effort and preparation, the day for realizing the beautiful and thrilling dream came on December 14, 1903. Kitty Hawk Beach in the state of North Carolina was the stage for a dramatic and historic event.

To decide who would fly it first, Orville Wright tossed a coin and Wilbur won. But when the plane’s 12-horsepower engine sped off, Wilbur got too excited and raised the elevator too high, and the lift factor suddenly disappeared. Flyer-1 fell on the ground with some damage. It took them three more days to repair Flyer-1. 

On December 17, the two brothers returned to the seashore. The weather was pleasant. Exactly, at 10.35 a.m., Orville raced down the rail and held his breath as suddenly, Flyer-1 took off and flew through the air! The Age of Flight had begun! 

Orville flew 120 feet for 12 seconds. The history of the world would never be the same! 

Orville and Wilbur Wright were happy to have completed the unfinished work of Otto Lilienthal and to have made the impossible possible with their intelligence. Little did they know that their invention of Flyer-1 would someday lead to huge passenger jets, military aircraft, and all of the other amazing aircraft we know today.

Surprisingly, the flight that took place in Kitty Hawk wasn’t really recognized in the United States. People couldn’t really accept and believe it. So Wilbur Wright went to France the following year and held an air show there. He flew the aircraft at an altitude of 300 feet.

In 1904, Wilbur Wright flew the modified version of Flyer-1 a distance of 2.7 miles. Wilbur proved that planes can be used for travel.

Then in 1908, Wilbur took his friend Charles William Furnas on the plane’s back seat and started the experimental journey. The successful flight made Charles William Furnas the first airplane passenger in the world. 

The journey was short, but the era of air travel really began when Wilbur covered the distance of 41 miles in France a few months later.

After returning to America, he got even more attention when he flew for crowds in New York. People saw it and finally believed human flight could happen.

Since The Wright Brothers’ time, aircraft were created that were bigger and faster and soon could hold many people and fly across the ocean. Aircraft was in the major world wars and in the case of World War II, major battles were won or lost based on airpower. Air travel eventually led to the building of rockets, and Neal Armstrong was a pilot before he went to the moon. Today jets can fly at the speed of sound and even some passenger jets like the Concorde can fly over 1,000 miles per hour and travel from New York to London (across the Atlantic Ocean) in less than an hour. 

Thinking about these advances makes me grateful for bright people like Orville and Wilbur Wright who learned all they could, then put their smarts to work and stuck with their work until they built the first basic airplane. Next time you’re flying on a plane thinking about people like Otto Lilienthal and The Wright Brothers and all of the engineers and pilots who have come after them. Be sure to check out our episodes about Bessie Coleman, Amelia Earhart and Neal Armstrong, all pilots. 

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Imagine you are in Europe. The year is 1895 and you live in Poland. Life is changing quickly at this time. Many people have been moving to cities for work or to America to start a new life. But you are a happy child, loving life with your four older siblings. Your father is a math and science teacher and from him, you have come to love math and science as well. However, you do not yet realize that one day you will become one of the most famous scientists in the world. You are Marie Curie.

Marie Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1867. She was the youngest daughter of five children. When she was born, her name was Marie Sklodowska. She changed her name to Marie Curie later when she got married.

Marie had a happy child and she became interested in science at a young age. She was very smart and got good grades in school. Sadly when Marie was only 10, her mother died. She had become sick with tuberculosis. 

Marie was raised by her father and became more and more interested in math and physics. Physics is the branch of science concerned with the nature and properties of matter and energy. Even though Marie got the top grades in her high school, she was not able to go to university when she graduated. The reason was because the university in Warsaw was a men’s-only university at the time.

Marie was very disappointed, but she continued to learn about the subjects she loved however she could. One way was through a secret school that taught university type courses at different locations around the city. Marie’s older sister Bronya also loved learning. Together the two girls dreamed of going to America to study at university there.

However Marie and Bronya were not rich. So they could not pursue this dream of studying in America together. To pursue means to seek to accomplish a goal over a long period of time. Despite this problem, Marie and Bronya did not give up in their hope of going to university. The two girls made a deal with each other. They would attend university in Europe. However, they would not go together. They decided that Marie would work and pay for Bronya to live and attend university in Europe. Afterwards, Bronya would work and pay for Marie to attend. 

For five years, from the age of 19-24, Marie worked as a tutor and nanny for children. She sent most of the money she made to her sister. And in her spare time, Marie would study and read about science and math. 

When she was 24, Marie moved to Paris and started attending university at the Sorbonne, a famous university in France. Marie received money every month from Bronya, however, it was not enough to live and eat well. Marie mostly ate bread and butter. Because she was not eating a healthy diet, Marie got sick often. 

Despite these hardships, Marie finished a master’s degree in physics and a degree in math. 

Shortly after Marie graduated from the Sorbonne, she met a man named Pierre Curie. Pierre was a professor of physics. A professor is a teacher and researcher in a college or university. Marie and Pierre were introduced by a friend of Marie’s in order for Marie to try to find lab space for an experiment she was going to conduct. 

Marie and Pierre fell in love and they were married in 1895. They both loved science and physics. They worked together investigating radioactivity. Radioactivity is a process in which parts of matter break down and create energy.

In 1898, the Curies discovered two new chemical elements, polonium and radium. This was an amazing discovery…

They were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903.

In 1906, Pierre had an unfortunate accident. He was knocked down by a carriage while crossing the road and he died. 

Marie took over his work after his death, including his teaching post at the Sorbonne. In doing so, she became the first woman to teach at the Sorbonne. She devoted herself to continuing the work that she and Pierre had started together.

In 1911, she received a second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry. 

The work that the Curies did was important in the development of x-ray technology. X-rays are electromagnetic wave of high energy and very short wavelength. They are able to pass through many materials that light cannot. X-rays are used for surgeries and other medical procedures, as they are able to help create images of what is inside of our bodies. Doctors can then use these X-ray images to figure out what is wrong with someone and where to operate, if necessary. 

During World War I, Marie helped ambulances have x-ray machines. She also volunteered with the ambulances and drove to the front lines to help wounded soldiers. 

Marie became the head of the International Red Cross’s radiological service. The International Red Cross is an organization dedicated to protecting victims of international wars.

In the 1920s, when Marie was in her 50s, she developed leukaemia, which is a type of cancer.  This was due to her exposure to radiation from her research. She died on July 4, 1934.

Marie Curie’s determination and hard work during her lifetime brought about amazing scientific developments that impact us all still today. As a woman physicist, she was a trailblazer in her field and faced backlash for her participation. But Marie was strong and determined. And she persisted in doing the work that she loved anyways. As a result, our medical and scientific world was changed. 

Is there something that you are passionate about? With hard work and determination, like Marie Curie, you can also make a difference in the world and in the things you are interested in. The key is to carry on despite times that are hard or backlash from others that you face to your efforts. If you believe in something and want to make a difference, you can do it!

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Have you heard of a Founding Father before? A Founding Father is someone who helped start the United States of America. Benjamin Franklin was a Founding Father. Some have also called him the First American, because he had so many of the traits that would become known as American, such as hard work and independence. Independence is when you do something for yourself. 

Ben Franklin was born in Boston Massachusetts to a very large family. He had 17 brothers and sisters! His family didn’t have very much money so he only went to school for 2 years. But he did spend a lot of time reading on his own. He also learned to write and enjoyed doing it.

When he was young he worked for his older brother who was a printer. A printer would print newspapers and books for other people. Printing was important, because it was the best way to share an idea at that time. Printers would use little metal letters and build entire pages of words and sentences, then use black ink to make copies of the metal letters. Because Ben was working for his older brother he was called an “apprentice.” An apprentice is someone who is learning to become a master at a certain skill like printing. 

While Ben was working as a printer he also liked to write for the newspaper. He would use a fake name Silence Dogood to write in the newspaper. He pretended to be an old lady and wrote funny jokes. Many people in the town thought this was very funny and didn’t know it was Ben writing the jokes. 

After a few years Ben left his brother’s shop and started working for a new printer. His job was to set the metal letters in the big printing machine. He was also a clerk, a shopkeeper and a bookkeeper. He liked to stay busy and to learn all he could while he was working.

Around this time, when he was 20 years old, Ben formed a group including other Americans who also liked to read. Books cost a lot of money to buy, and there were no libraries, so Ben and his friends started their own library. They shared the books they read and met together to talk about what they read. Later in his life Ben would help start some of the first libraries in America because he knew reading and learning were so important.

After working for other printers for many years, Ben started his own printing shop. He wrote about his own ideas and used parts of the paper to talk about good morals. Morals are the things that are good to do in life — like being honest, being kind, not stealing and working hard. Ben made lists of what he wanted to do better each day then at the end of the day checked the boxes on what he did good at and made note of what he needed to do better. He believed improving each day was very important.

Ben was very interested in science and invention. He studied electricity. At the time no one had electricity, which means they had no lights or electronics like we do today. Ben saw lightning during a storm and guessed that it must be electricity. Sometimes when lightning hit tall buildings it started fires. Ben had the idea to put a metal pole on the top of buildings, so when the lightning struck the pole it would go into the ground instead of start fires. This invention was called a lightning rod. Many people think that Ben used a kite to discover lightning was electricity, but he really just wrote about the idea and someone else tried it.

Ben also invented a certain type of eye glasses called bifocals, which allowed someone to see differently depending on the part of the glasses they were looking through.

Ben also liked to play chess. He also created the first Fire Department and helped start some of the first universities in the United States.

Because of his newspapers and his inventions and other achievements Ben Franklin became very well known in America and across the ocean in Europe. When many Americans disagreed with England about taxes, Ben was on the side of the Americans who wanted change. He wrote about his ideas and even helped Thomas Jefferson write the Declaration of Independence. The Declaration of Independence was a paper they wrote to tell England they wanted to be their own country and to be free.

A war began between America and England, so Ben took a ship across the ocean to ask for France’s help. The French people loved Ben Franklin. He liked to wear a fur hat and talk about science and his inventions. They thought he was interesting and fun to talk to. France ended up helping America fight and later win the war against England. 

In his new country, Ben helped put together the first Constitution. The Constitution was a list of laws to help the country stay together and work well. To the end of his life Ben did all he could to help make America a strong country. 

Earlier we talked about some of the morals, good things we should do, that Ben wrote about in his paper. Ben wasn’t a perfect person, like all of us, but he wanted to do good things. 

He wrote about temperance. Temperance is not doing too much of something such as eating. We need good food for our bodies, but too much of it isn’t always a good thing. We can usually tell by how our stomachs feel when we are eating.

He also taught about silence. Sometimes it’s good to speak up, but other times it’s better to listen and think about what we should say. If we don’t think before we speak, we often say things we don’t really mean.

Order means to think about what we are doing and have a plan. We shouldn’t spend all our time doing the same thing, but giving the right amount of time to each good thing.

Frugality means to be careful with the money that you have. It’s easy to want to spend all of your money, but it’s better to spend money on what you need and to save some. It’s ok to spend some of your money on fun things, but not all of it.

Industry means to stay busy doing useful things. Each day we can make a plan of what we want to do and then get to work. Having fun is good in its own time, but we should also spend time learning, helping others, and getting chores and other things done.

Justice means treating others well and doing our best to make things fair.

Cleanliness means we should take care of our bodies by keeping them cleaning, bathing each day, and brushing our teeth.

Like Ben, we can do our best to live by these teachings each day. You could even keep track of your goals like Ben did in his journals and checklists. You can also read and learn and come up with new ideas that will help other people like Ben’s lightning rod. You can also be courageous and stand up for good things like Ben did during the Revolution. 

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Close your eyes and imagine a short man with gray and white hair that sticks up off his head and grows in all directions. He has a big mustache and wears a coat that is rumpled, pants that are short, and socks that don’t match. But he has a kind smile on his face and deep, thoughtful eyes. This is what Albert Einstein looked like. And it might be easy to judge him by his funny appearance, but Einstein is one of the most famous scientists of all time. And many of his big ideas changed the world! But where did Albert Einstein come from? What was his childhood like? What was his life like? Listen closely, because it all starts in Ulm, Germany on March 14, 1879 when Albert was born.

Albert was quiet and very shy as a child. It took him longer to say his first words than most kids. His parents thought this meant there was something wrong with him. They took him to the doctor, but the doctor said everything was just fine. As a child, Albert liked to play by himself. He played with blocks and built towers of cards. He was very curious and often sat and just day-dreamed. His parents thought this meant he had some kind of problem, but really he just liked to sit and think and dream and make things on his own. 

Albert also liked the play the violin. Often he and his mother played together. Albert’s mind was always imagining and wondering about the world around him. He went to school, but wasn’t learning the things that interested him, so he started searching for answers on his own. He read and found many of his answers in books and by asking others. His parents began to see how curious and bright he was and appreciate his talents, even though he was quiet and shy. 

In high school, Albert struggled in school. Kids had to sit perfectly still, wear uniforms, and march in line. If they asked questions they were punished. His teachers told his parents he’d never do anything useful in life because he was so disobedient by asking questions and speaking out of turn. These years were very frustrating for Albert, because he was curious and wanted to learn. Math was one of his favorite subjects. His parents found a book about geometry, the study of shapes, and he taught it to himself. 

Eventually, Albert was told to leave his school, because he refused to stop asking questions and wouldn’t blindly obey his teachers. He moved with his family to Italy and there spent his time hiking in the mountains and learning on his own. He read about great scientists and astronomers like Copernicus and Galileo who had great ideas. But because their ideas were different than what was believed, they were treated poorly. Albert understood these scientists because he felt he was being treated the same way. In Italy, he wrote his first scientific paper, but it received very little attention because he was young and no one thought someone his age would have great ideas. In Italy, he decided to move to Zurich Switzerland to study physics.

There he loved the Swiss people and his new college. He was able to ask tough questions and talk about them with his classmates. There he met a woman named Mileva who was also a big thinker. They enjoyed their time together and were later married. 

In Switzerland, Albert started working at the patent office. When someone comes up with an idea for a new invention, they draw up the plans and get a patent — which means no one else can take their idea. Albert’s job was to read about all of the new inventions and approve them. He enjoyed this job and was able to work so fast that he could take off early and spend time hiking and thinking. These were some of Albert’s happiest years of his life. So many marvelous ideas came to him at this time. He started writing scientific papers about his ideas and published five of them. These included big ideas about space travel and electricity. Albert was known for wearing the same wrinkled clothes every day and didn’t comb his hair, so it stuck up all over the place. He liked to spend time deep in thought rather than taking care of himself. People began to know him for his big ideas and recognized him for his funny appearance.

As Albert became more popular, he finally got his dream job — teaching physics for the university. Now he was able to spend all of his time thinking and teaching his students. The students loved their quirky professor. He was able to take difficult ideas and explain them in a simple way.

One of his big ideas was called The Theory of Relativity. This idea was that all things move at different speeds except for light. Think about how as a car passes it’s moving at a different speed as it drives by. But if you’re inside the car it doesn’t appear to be moving at all. So speed is “relative” to where you are. Another example is that the Earth is flying around the sun and spinning at incredible speeds, but because you’re standing on the Earth it doesn’t appear to be moving at all.

 Another of Einstein’s big idea was that not only are the planets moving around the Sun, but the Sun is moving through the galaxy as well, it just doesn’t appear to move because our planet is moving around it.

Some funny things about Albert is that even though he was a scientific genius he was often absent-minded, which means he forgot simple things. For example, often when he went out he forgot his keys, lost his bags, and forgot to eat. He was so focused on what went on in his wonderful brain that he often didn’t consider what was going on around him. He found simpler ways to live his life, so he could focus all his energy on thinking. For example, he wore the same clothes every day and only buttoned his top button because it took less time and energy. He often wore socks that didn’t match, his clothes were rumpled and his hair stuck all over the place. But his fans loved it and people all over the world talked about this brilliant, quirky genius.

Albert’s next job took him back to Germany, but over the years he and his wife were growing apart. He was so busy being a professor and speaking around the world that he didn’t give Mileva and his children the time they needed. Mileva decided not to move him and they divorced. Albert admitted he was not always a good father and chose writing his papers and teaching over his family responsibilities. 

While Albert was living in Germany, World War I started. He was sad to see soldiers marching down the street because he knew what war did to people. He refused to support the war and the leaders of Germany were upset at him. He could have gone to jail, but he stood up for his beliefs anyway. When World War I ended Albert was very happy.

In Germany, Albert met a woman named Elsa. They grew close and she spent her time taking care of him, making sure he ate and shaved and didn’t lose his keys. They were married. Albert loved Elsa and she loved him. 

By this time, Albert was so popular it made his life difficult. You might think being popular is a great thing, but for people who are very famous, you can’t walk anywhere without people talking to you or wanting a picture or asking for your autograph. Albert loved being alone, so this was very hard for him. He was offered a lot of money to speak and do other things, but he refused. For him, his research and his ideas were more important than money or fame.

Sadly, new problems began in Germany. Albert Einstein was Jewish, which is a race and religion. Many Jews who lived in Germany wrote to Albert and asked him to defend them because they were being treated badly. Their shops were taken from them and they were often beaten up by non-Jews. The Nazis, who had taken control of Germany, falsely blamed all their problems on the Jewish people. They burned their books and many Jews started leaving Germany. Albert spoke out against the Nazis and refused to leave even though his life was at risk. Hitler, the powerful leader of the Nazis, said Albert was a spy and eventually Albert realized it was too dangerous for him to stay. He and Elsa moved to the United States and became a professor at Princeton University in New Jersey. 

Albert’s years at Princeton were hard. He was sad to see what was happening to Jews in Germany. Then sadly Elsa died. Albert often kept to himself and played his violin. He also didn’t have as many big ideas as when he was younger.

One of Albert’s most famous ideas was an equation, E = MC2. It basically said that all things are energy. Even the hard walls around you, your body, mass are energy, too, but just in a different form. He also had the idea that if an atom could be broken it would cause a HUGE explosion, called a nuclear explosion. He worried that the Nazis might create a nuclear bomb and use it against the United States and her Allies. Even though he hated the idea that such a weapon would ever be used, he wrote President Roosevelt and told him that the United States must create the bomb first. Eventually, the United States did create an atomic bomb and used it against its enemy Japan. For the rest of his life, Albert wondered whether he should have ever shared his ideas about a nuclear bomb. But he also thought the consequence of the Nazis making it first would be even worse. 

After World War II ended, Einstein spent many years speaking out against atomic bombs. The United States and Russia had made thousands of them and it made the world a very dangerous place. Fortunately, after World War II nuclear bombs were never used. 

Albert Einstein spent the last years of his life growing old while living in Princeton, New Jersey. His hair was now white and grew widely in all directions. He was still a quirky and funny sight to see with his rumpled, mismatched clothes. He continued to play his violin and go on walks around his home. He often stopped to help people in need or invite them into his home. He was a very gentle, kind person who had changed the world with his ideas but didn’t care about money or being famous. He just wanted the world to be a peaceful place. On April 17, 1955 Einstein passed away while thinking through a problem and writing equations on a piece of paper. To his last day, he was a thinker! 

Spend a moment thinking about what it was like to be Albert. When he was young he loved to go on walks and observe the world around him. He saw everything through the eyes of wonder and curiosity. The world to him was an exciting, mysterious place. He loved to understand how it worked and dream about how the parts he didn’t understand might work. His imagination led to some of his amazing ideas. You can wonder, too. Remember in the times when you might be bored, it’s ok to be bored. Say it out loud “it’s ok to bored!” When you’re bored, you can take a deep breath and look closely at the world around you. It’s the perfect chance to see things with new eyes. 

Even though Einstein became very famous, he didn’t care about having lots of money and expensive things. He wanted the world to be fair and peaceful. He also wasn’t perfect. No one really is. We all have different strengths and weaknesses. Einstein wasn’t a very good father, but he ended up helping the world in many other ways. 

If you want to learn more about Albert Einstein we shared our favorite videos and books on our website, BedtimeHistoryStories.com. Be sure to check it out.

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