Marie Curie - An Extraordinary Life of Breaking Boundaries

Women have left their mark on the world, at times changing the course of history and at other times influencing small but significant spheres of our life. Marie Curie is one of the most famous scientists that ever lived. Most scientists, especially women, are fascinated by Marie Curie. In the early part of the twentieth century, when professional opportunities for women were rare, she was the first woman to obtain a doctoral degree from the Sorbonne.

Marie Curie is best known as the discoverer of the radioactive elements polonium and radium and as the first person to win two Nobel prizes. For scientists and the public, her radium was a key to a basic change in our understanding of matter and energy. Her work not only influenced the development of fundamental science but also ushered in a new era in medical research and treatment. Curie was not only the first woman to win the Nobel Prize in Physics, but when she won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, she became the first person ever to win the Nobel Prize twice.

Marie Curie, (Maria Sklodowska) was born in Warsaw on November 7, 1867, the daughter of a secondary-school teacher. She received a general education in local schools and some scientific training from her father. From childhood she was remarkable for her prodigious memory, and at the age of 16 she won a gold medal on completion of her secondary education at the Russian lycée.

In 1891 Skodowska went to Paris and, now using the name Marie, began to follow the lectures of Paul Appel, Gabriel Lippmann, and Edmond Bouty at the Sorbonne. There she met physicists who were already well known—Jean Perrin, Charles Maurain, and Aimé Cotton.

She met Pierre Curie in 1894, and they married in 1895. Marie Curie was interested in the recent discoveries of radiation. Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen had discovered X rays in 1895, and in 1896 Antoine Henri Becquerel had discovered that the element uranium gives off similar invisible radiations. Curie thus began studying uranium radiations, and, using piezoelectric techniques devised by her husband, carefully measured the radiations in pitchblende, an ore containing uranium. When she found that the radiations from the ore were more intense than those from uranium itself, she realized that unknown elements, even more radioactive than uranium, must be present. Marie Curie was the first to use the term radioactive to describe elements that give off radiations as their nuclei break down.Pierre Curie ended his own work on magnetism to join his wife's research, and in 1898 the Curies announced their discovery of two new elements: radium and polonium (named by Marie in honor of Poland).

During the next four years the Curies, working in a leaky wooden shed, processed a ton of pitchblende, laboriously isolating from it a fraction of a gram of radium. They shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in physics with Becquerel for the discovery of radioactive elements. Marie Curie was the first female recipient of a Nobel Prize, it was the first time a woman had ever won a Nobel. In 1911, Curie became the first and only woman to win a second Nobel Prize. She earned, on her own, the award in chemistry for isolating pure radium.

Marie Curie's final illness was diagnosed as pernicious anemia, caused by overexposure to radiation. on July 4, 1934, Curie died in Sancellemoz, France. Albert Einstein (1879–1955) once said, "Marie Curie is, of all celebrated beings, the only one whom fame has not corrupted."

Highlight

• First person to discover a new element, called radium. She and her husband Pierre discovered radium and polonium. This launched the study of modern physics.
• First woman in Europe to receive a doctorate of science. She encouraged many others to become scientists.
• First woman to win a Nobel Prize. In 1903,The nobel prize for physics was jointly awarded to Curie, her husband Pierre, and Henri Becquerel
• First person ever to receive two Nobel Prizes. In 1911, she won a second Nobel Prize (this time in chemistry) for her discovery and isolation of pure radium and radium components.
• She received 15 gold medals, 19 degrees, and other honors. Yet she had a humility worth extolling.
• She could have become very rich by selling her knowledge of how to extract radium. But she said this knowledge belonged to science, and did not make any money from her discovery.