Maria Salomea Skłodowska, aka Marie Curie, entered the world on November 7, 1867. She already had four older siblings. At the time, the entire family resided in the city of Warsaw, Poland. Maria’s mother and father were both teachers. Her father specifically focused on the subjects of physics and mathematics but her mother headed a prestigious all-girls school. Her family’s strong background in education served as a foundation for the young Maria who had a remarkable memory.
The young girl enjoyed a happy childhood until the age of eight when her older sister Sophia died of typhus. Two years later, Maria’s mother died of tuberculosis. In spite of these tragedies, Maria still received a stellar education. She attended Sikorska boarding school from 1877 to 1882 and then went on to graduate from her local secondary school. After graduating, Maria had to work as a governess. This was because her family lived in relative poverty due to bad investments that her father made.
Marie Curie
While working as a governess, she supported her sister who was living in Paris. Once her older sister settled, she offered Maria a place to stay in France. Maria moved to Paris in 1891 and began attending Paris’ Sorbonne University where she studied physics and mathematics. In 1894, she met a scientist named Pierre Curie. They soon married and Maria Skłodowska started to go by the name Marie Curie. Marie and Pierre later had two daughters, Irène and Ève.
The Discovery of Polonium
In order to complete her thesis, Marie began working with the element uranium. She convinced her husband to work alongside her and together they studied a mineral called pitchblende. Pitchblende contains uranium. However, they realized that the mineral had a higher than expected level of radioactivity. They began to suspect that the substance also contained another, previously unknown element. After extracting a black powder, Marie and Pierre named their new element polonium. It was named after the country of Poland which Marie was native to.
The Discovery of Radium
After they extracted polonium, the pair still found that the remaining pitchblende was more radioactive than one would expect. They theorized that it contained yet another element that they called radium. However, the two were unable to extract a sample of radium without more pitchblende. They eventually obtained more and Marie isolated radium in 1902. Though, this was not before Marie and Pierre began to experience the beginnings of radiation sickness.
Nobel Prizes
Marie and Pierre received the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on radioactivity in 1903. Unfortunately, Pierre died in 1906 after a horse-drawn wagon hit him. Marie succeeded him as a professor at Sorbonne and continued her work with radioactive substances. She earned another Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1911 because of her work in creating a way to measure radioactivity. By this time, Marie was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes and also the first woman to win even one Nobel Prize.
Marie died in 1934 at the age of 86 from an illness caused by her exposure to radiation. She put in years of work in the fields of physics and chemistry and, fortunately, many recognize her for this work. Though, it is tragic that all the efforts she put in during her career eventually caused her death.
Her Impact
Marie Curie’s legacy continues to this day. For decades, radium was used during cancer radiation. Radium is no longer used for this purpose due to safety concerns but some of Curie’s research is still being utilized in the field of nuclear medicine. Nuclear medicine is a field that allows different bodily functions to be analyzed using radioactive materials. Outside of nuclear medicine, Marie Curie continues to inspire generations of innovative scientists.
