| Marie Sklodowska-Curie (1867-1934) |
| Marie Sklodowska-Curie is one of the most famous of all women scientists. She had many achievements throughout her life but her most famous were the discovery of radio activity (for which she received a Nobel Prize for Physics, jointly awarded to her, her husband Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel in 1903) and the discovery and isolation of pure radium and radium components. For this she received yet another Nobel Prize, in Chemistry, in 1911. A short while before she discovered radium, she also discovered polonium, which she named in honor of her native country, Poland. Marie, nicknamed Marya, was born in Warsaw, Poland on November 1, 1867. All her young life she desired to have a scientific career but lack of money and sexist times would not allow it. Finally in 1891, Marie went to Paris and passed a physics and mathematics degree. She was also introduced to Pierre Curie, who also had a passion for science. They were married several years later and began incredible, enlightening experiments. They began experiments involving uranium and disovered substances that were 'radioactive', a phrase Marie, herself had created. "Together, they demonstrated in a major discovery that radioactivity was not the result of a chemical reaction but a property of the element or, more specifically, of the atom. Marie then studied pitchblende, a uranic mineral in which she measured a much more intense activity than is present in uranium alone. She deduced that there were other substances besides uranium that were very redioactive, such as polonium and radium, which she discovered in 1898." (paragraph taken from page 2 in france.diplomate.fr/label_france/ENGLISH/SCIENCES/CURIE/marie.html) When Pierre tested radium on himself and discovered that it caused a wound, it was seen how it effected humans and began to be usdful in treating malign tumours. Pierre was killed in 1906 as a result of being struck by a car and Marie continued on alone to isolate pure radium and receive her second Nobel Prize. In 1934, Marie passed away. Although getting on in her years, it was rather ironic that her death was due to overexposure to huge amounts of radiation while testing, for which she had gotten leukaemia. The very thing she had discovered, ended up killing her. Marie sacrificed her body and eventually her life because of her wonderful discoveries in science. She devoted her life to the medical applications of her discoveries. Had she not done as much as she did, there would be no treatments today for cancer and many more people would have died because of cancer. Her work has tremendously aided in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer. |
| Http://www.france.diplomatie.fr/label_france/ENGLISH/SCIENCES/CURIE/marie.html |
| http;//hum.amu.edu.pl/~zbzw/ph/sci/msc.htm |
| www.nobel.se/chemistry/laureates/1911/ |
| Bibliography -http://curie.che.virginia.edu/scientist/curie.html -http://hum.amu.edu.pl/~zbzw/ph/sci/msc.htm -www.france.diplomatie.fr/label_france/ENGLISH/SCIENCES/CRIE/marie.html -www.nobel.se/chemistry/laureates/1911/ |
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