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Marie Curie was born
on November 7, 1867, in Warsaw, Poland. She was the fifth and youngest
child of Bronsilawa Boguska, a pianist, singer and teacher, and Wladyslaw
Sklodowski, a professor of mathematics and physics. Even as a young
child Marie was amazed by her father's physics equipment and, like her
father, was quiet and hard-working.
As a student, Marie was very talented
with a prodigious memory. At the age of 16 she won a gold metal on
completion of her secondary education at the Russian lycee. She spent
the next 8 years of her life working as a tutor and governess to earn enough
money to attend the Sorbonne in Paris, studying mathematics and physics
in her spare time. In November of 1891, Marie left Poland and registered
at the Sorbonne under the French version of her first name, "Marie."
At the Sorbonne she met physicists who were already well known- Jean Perrin,
Charles Maurain, and Aime Cotton. Living in harsh conditions, she
graduated from her first class of physical science in 1893. During
the spring she met Pierre Curie, a highly acclaimed professor at the School
of Physics. They married on July 26, 1895, launching one of the most
significant scientific partnerships in history.
Curie set up her laboratory in
a small, glass-walled shed at the School of Physics during the spring of
1898. She planned to study the mysterious rays given off by uranium.
Within 2 months she had made two important discoveries: the intensity of
the rays was in direct proportion to the amount of uranium in the sample,
and nothing she did to alter the uranium affected the rays. This
led her to formulate the theory that rays were the result of something
happening within the atom itself, a property she called radioactivity.
That summer Marie's husband joined
her in her research. They uncovered a new radioactive element which
they named polonium, in honor of Marie's native country Poland. They
identified an even stronger element, which they named radium. Although
they announced their discovery in 1898, it was not until 1902 that they
were able to isolate enough radium to confirm its existence. This
earned Marie her doctorate (the first awarded to a woman in Europe)
and both the Curies the1903 Nobel Prize in physics.
With this new honor came immediate
international fame and enough money to ease some of their financial burdens.
After the birth of her second daughter Curie rejoined her husband in the
laboratory. The French government wanted to reward the Curies by
creating a new professorship in physics at the Sorbonne for Pierre and
building a new laboratory for Marie. But, Pierre died tragically
in a Paris street in 1906 after his skull was crushed by the wheel of a
passing horse- drawn wagon when he absentmindedly stepped into its path.
After the accident, Marie confined herself to her diary; she wondered how
she could continue to work in her laboratory, "where I never thought I
would never have to work without you."
Following Pierre's death, Marie
accepted a professorship, at the invitation of Sorbonne, making her the
first woman faculty member. She continued to work in her laboratory,
determined to isolate pure polonium and pure radium, to remove any remaining
doubts about the existence of the two elements. Her efforts were
rewarded with a second Nobel Prize in 1911.
After the war ended, Curie
campaigned to raise funds for a hospital and laboratory devoted to radiology,
the branch of medicine that uses X-rays and radium to diagnose and
treat disease. In 1921, an American journalist heard about Marie's
efforts and invited her to publicize her findings in the United States.
Accompanied by her two daughters, Marie Curie sailed to the United States,
where President Warren G. Harding presented her with a gram of radium,
bought as the result of a collection among American women. She returned
to France with enough radium, money, and equipment to outfit her new laboratory.
Although the dangers of radiation
are well understood now, many of the researchers who investigated these
"mysterious rays" in the early part of the 20th century handled these radioactive
elements with bare hands and no precautions. By the end of the1920s,
Curie began to suffer almost constantly from fatigue, dizziness, and a
low grade fever. She also experienced a continuous hammering in her
ears and a gradual loss of eyesight. In the early 1930's Curie's
health continued to worsen, and doctors diagnosed pernicious anemia caused
by the cumulative effects of radiation exposure. She died on July 4th 1934,
at the mountain sanitarium where she had gone to recuperate.
Maria Sklodowska-Curie
is notable for her many firsts:
-She was the first to use the term
radiology
-In 1902 Marie Curie earned a doctorate,
the first awarded to a woman in Europe
-In 1903, she became the first woman to
win a Nobel Prize in Physics
-She was the first female lecturer and
professor at the Sorbonne University in Paris (1906)
-In 1911, she won an unprecedented second
Nobel Prize in chemistry for her discovery and isolation of pure -radium
and radium components. She was the first person to receive two Nobel
Prizes
-She was the first mother-Nobel Prize
Laureate of a daughter-Nobel Prize Laureate. Her oldest daughter
Irène -Joliote-Curie won a Nobel Prize for chemistry (1935)
Bibliography:
-Marie Curie a
Polish Physicist 1996.10 January 2001
htttp://www2.lucidcafe.com/lucidcafe/library/95nov/Curie.html
-Marie Curie 1997.10
January 2001
http://www.nobel.se/physics/articles/Curie
-Marie Curie,Remarkable
scientist 1996.10 January 2001
http://www.northnet.org/saintlawrenceaauw/Curie.html