CHEMISTRY REACTIONS

WOMEN IN SCIENCE:  MARIE CURIE

Early life and education

Maria Sklodowska, later known as Marie Curie, was born on November 7, 1867, in Warsaw (modern-day Poland), the youngest of five children. Both of her parents were teachers, her father a math and physics instructor. 

As a child, Curie had a bright and curious mind and excelled at school. But despite being a top student in her secondary school, Curie could not attend the male-only University of Warsaw. She instead continued her education in Warsaw's "floating university," a set of underground, informal classes held in secret.

Curie dreamed of going abroad to earn an official degree, but lacked the financial resources to pay for more schooling. For  five years,  she worked as a tutor and a governess, using her spare time to study, reading about physics, chemistry and math.

In 1891, Curie finally made her way to Paris and enrolled at the Sorbonne. She studied hard, but with little money, she survived on buttered bread and tea, and her health sometimes suffered because of her poor diet. Curie completed her master's degree in physics in 1893 and earned another degree in mathematics the following year.

Marie married French physicist Pierre Curie in 1895. They became a scientific dynamic duo who were completely devoted to one another. At first, Marie and Pierre worked on separate projects. But after Marie discovered radioactivity, Pierre put aside his own work to help her with her research.

In 1906 Pierre was killed in Paris after accidentally stepping in front of a horse-drawn wagon. Despite her tremendous grief, she took over his teaching post at the Sorbonne, becoming the famous university's first female professor. 

Discoveries

Fascinated with the work of Henri Becquerel, a French physicist who discovered that uranium casts off rays weaker than the X-rays found by Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, Curie took his work a few steps further.

Curie conducted her own experiments on uranium rays and discovered that they remained constant, no matter the condition or form of the uranium. The rays, she theorized, came from the element's atomic structure. This revolutionary idea created the field of atomic physics. Curie herself coined the word "radioactivity" to describe the phenomena.

Following Curie’s discovery of radioactivity, she continued her research with her husband Pierre. Working with the mineral pitchblende, the pair discovered a new radioactive element in 1898. They named the element polonium, after Curie's native country of Poland.

They also detected the presence of another radioactive material in the pitchblende and called that radium. In 1902, the Curies announced that they had produced a decigram of pure radium, demonstrating its existence as a unique chemical element.

When World War I started in 1914, Curie devoted her time and resources to help the cause. She championed the use of portable X-ray machines in the field, and these medical vehicles earned the nickname "Little Curies." 

Nobel Prizes

Curie won two Nobel Prizes, for physics in 1903 and for chemistry in 1911. She was the 

• first woman to win a Nobel Prize 

• only woman to win the award twice

• the first of only four people to win the award twice

• only person to everwin the award for accomplishments in two separate sciences.

Curie received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903, along with her husband and Henri Becquerel, for their work on radioactivity. At first her name was not included with the two men, but Pierre refused to accept his award unless she also was to receive it. 

In 1911, Curie won her second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry, for her discovery of radium and polonium. While she received the prize alone, she shared the honour jointly with her late husband in her acceptance speech.

Legacy

Curie died on July 4, 1934, of aplastic anemia, believed to be caused by prolonged exposure to radiation.  She was known to carry test tubes of radium around in the pocket of her lab coat. Her many years working with radioactive materials took a toll on her health.

Curie made many breakthroughs in her lifetime. Remembered as a leading figure in science and a role model for women, she has received numerous posthumous honours. 

In 1995, Marie and Pierre's remains were relocated and  interred in the Pantheon in Paris, the final resting place of France's greatest minds. Marie became the first and one of only five women to be laid to rest there. In 2017, the Panthéon hosted an exhibition to honour what would have been her 150th birthday.