The thing I've always found amazing about Marie Curie is that she was able to force her way to the top of her field, namely science, when it was considered to be exclusively for men. I admire her determination and like to think that I'm a bit like her.
She was one of the great scientists of this century, with degrees in math and physics. She won two Nobel Prizes. One for Physics in 1903, and one for Chemistry in 1911. She was a pioneer in the studies of radium and polonium, and was instrumental in the understanding of radioactivity.
And the research that her husband Pierre, and Marie Curie did, led to the understanding of the atom as being an entity that could be split to release enormous energy.
I mean to say, can you imagine what it must have taken in patience and fortitude, to enter the world that had been, until now, forever male? But think about a world without a Marie Curie. The study to which she devoted her entire life, paved the way for medical processes that now seem almost commonplace.
She was born in Poland to a very poor family. The youngest of 5 children, 4 girls and 1 boy. Her parents were teachers, and from them she developed a deep thirst for education. She put off going to college so that a younger sister could recieve an education. When it was her turn to go, she had to work as well as study, as money was very short.
Despite this, she managed to get excellent grades in her chosen fields, and recieved a degree in Physics, and the following year, a degree in Chemistry. She met the love of her life, Pierre Curie, and they married in 1895. He was also a scientist, and she worked long hours in his laboratory without pay in the 1890's.
In 1903 Marie and Pierre received one of England's highest scientific
awards, the Davy Medal of the Royal Society. That same year they and
Henri Becquerel (for his experiments with uranium) shared the Nobel Prize
for physics.
Pierre was killed in 1906, in an accident, leaving her with 2 small daughters to raise alone. Much of her later years were spent trying to raise the funds to continue their work. They had discovered that Uranium gives off invisible rays and x-rays as we know them, were developed from this discovery.
After his death, Marie took his place
as professor at the Sorbonne University. In 1911 she won the Nobel Prize
for chemistry, the first time a Nobel Prize had been awarded to the same
person twice.
She learned that pitchblende, a natural ore from the mining of Uranium, produced radium. It took tons of this to produce 1 gram of radium. Because of her effort in the discovery of radium the unit of measurement of the radioactivity is called a curie, after Marie.
During World War 1 she taught nurses to go out with the 'radiation wagon', and x-ray the wounded on the battlefield, locating schrapnel and broken bones to be repaired. She was instrumental in forming the Radium Institute in Paris in 1914, and was its first director
Finally, in May, 1934 a strange illness overtook her. The radium she had
worked with for so long had been poisoning her. She died on July 4,
1934.
