In
Marie Curie,
About me
She was born Maria Sktodowska-Curie (1867-1934) in Warsaw, Poland, where she lived until she was 22.
She excelled at school, was a top student in her secondary school, but couldn’t attend the men-only University of Warsaw. She instead continued her education in Warsaw’”floating university’, a set of underground informal classes held in secret.
Later, she was naturalized French . While a French citizen, she never lost her sense of Polish identity. She taught her daughters the Polish language and took them on visits to Poland. She named the first chemical element that she discovered “Polonium” after her native country. In 1891, at the age of 24, she finally made her way to Parisfollowed her older sister, Bronislawa to study in Paris. She enrolled at the Sorbonne. The course was, of course, taught in French, which Marie had to reach top speed in very quickly. She had only a little money and this was a time of some hardship for the young scientist. She didn’t have much to eat and during Winters, she had to study in her unheated apartment, chilled to the bone. She completed her master’s degree in physics in 1893 at the Sorbonne. She finished as top student in her master’s physics degree course. Then she earned another degree in mathematics the following year in 1894, aged 27. After her degrees in Physics and Mathematics, she received a commission to do a study on different types of steel and their magnetic properties. She needed a lab to work in and a colleague introduced her to French physicist Pierre Curie. A romance developed between the brilliant pair and they became a scientific dynamic duo. They married on July 26 1895. The Curies worked together investigating radioactivity. They were completely devoted to one another.
In 1898, the Curies announced the discovery of a new chemical element: the Polonium. At the end of the year, they announced the discovery of another, the Radium. In 1902, the Curies announced that they had produced a decigram of pure radium.They were jointly awarded Nobel Prize in Physics for research on radiation in 1903. They shared the prize with Henri Becquerel, the original discovery of radioactivity.
Then, they developed an international reputation for their scientific efforts and they used their prize money to continue their research.
By the late 1920s her health was beginning to deteriorate. She died aged 66, on 4 july 1934 of aplastic anemia, a blood disease that is often caused by too much exposure to radiation. It is likely that the radioactivity she had been exposed to during her career caused the disease.
In 1898, the Curies announced the discovery of a new chemical element: the Polonium. At the end of the year, they announced the discovery of another, the Radium. In 1902, the Curies announced that they had produced a decigram of pure radium.They were jointly awarded Nobel Prize in Physics for research on radiation in 1903. They shared the prize with Henri Becquerel, the original discovery of radioactivity.
Then, they developed an international reputation for their scientific efforts and they used their prize money to continue their research.
By the late 1920s her health was beginning to deteriorate. She died aged 66, on 4 july 1934 of aplastic anemia, a blood disease that is often caused by too much exposure to radiation. It is likely that the radioactivity she had been exposed to during her career caused the disease.
