Maria Salomea Sklodowska-Curie was born 7 November of 1867 in Poland and died 4 July of 1934 in France. She was the first woman who won a Nobel Prize and the only woman that won the Nobel Price twice. [3],[4] She began her interest in science by following her dad’s footsteps .Her father was a math and physics tutor. Because she was a woman, she could not attend a formal university but assisted to a “floating university”, a set of underground and secret place where she took classes Her main interests to study where physics, chemistry and mathematics. [2] For five years Maria worked as a tutor and a governess to earn money to go to the university. In 1891, she enrolled at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France. After she earned her master’s degree, Maria was searching for a large laboratory to work. Professor Jozef Kowalski introduced Pierre Curie to Maria. The passion between Maria and Pierre made them to decide to get married. On 26 July of 1895 Maria Sklodowska married Pierre Curie. In 1903, Marie Curie and Pierre Curie won the Nobel Prize in Physics. The prize share was ¼ for each one because Antoine Henri Becquerel also won it. [5] As stated by the Nobel Prize website, Marie and Pierre Curie won the Nobel because “in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena discovered by Professor Becquerel.” [1] It was a research of many years that made Pierre and Marie to won the Nobel. Before she knew about Pierre, Marie was conducting experiments on uranium rays, based by Becquerel’s works. However after Marie and Pierre got married, Pierre decided to abandon his work and help with Marie’s. She theorized that the rays remained constant because came from the element’s atomic structure. Marie Curie invented the term “radioactivity” to describe this phenomena. In 1897, Marie and Pierre welcomed their first child but this didn’t helped them stop with their research. In 1898, both Marie and Pierre discovered a radioactive element called Polonium. In 1902 also discovered another radioactive element called Radium. [7]
In the same year that Pierre and Marie won the Nobel (1903), they welcomed their second child. In 1906, Pierre dies in an accident. Marie decided to become a professor and was the first female professor at Sorbonne University. In 1914 when World War I began, Marie Curie invented portable X-ray machines for the soldiers. In her finals year, Marie’s health was degrading. She always carried radioactive test tubes in her lab coat pocket. The prolonged exposure to radiation without proper protection made that in 1934 Marie Curie died of aplastic anemia. In 1995, Marie’s and Pierre’s remains where placed at the Pantheon in Paris, France. This place is where the greatest minds in France rest. Marie Curie was the only woman to be laid to rest there. Irene Curie, Marie and Pierre Curie’s first child, followed her parent’s footsteps. In 1935, Irene and her husband won a Nobel Prize in Chemistry for their work on the synthesis of new radioactive elements. [6]
References
• [1] The Nobel Medal for Physics and Chemistry.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/medal.html (accessed November 30,2014)
• [2] Marie Curie-Biographical.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/marie-curie-bio.html (accessed November 30,2014)
• [3] Marie Curie- Facts.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1911/marie-curie-facts.html (accessed November 30,2014)
• [4] The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1911.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1911/ (accessed November 30,2014)
• [5] The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903.
http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/ (accessed November 30,2014)
• [6] Marie Curie Biography.
http://www.biography.com/people/marie-curie-9263538 (accessed November 30,2014)
• [7] Marie Curie: Facts and Biography.
http://www.livescience.com/38907-marie-curie-facts-biography.html
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