Born in Warsaw, Poland in November 7, 1867, Maria Sklodowska or commonly known as Marie Curie was a brilliant child growing up. She had a dream to get an higher education but back then in Poland it was against the law for women to get an higher education, so she and her sister Bronislawa Dluska joined an underground floating university (an underground university that provided polish youths clandestine education, they met at night changing locations to avoid detection by the czar's police). She was working as a tutor and governess to save enough just to change locations and get a proper education in France.
When she finally had enough to move to France, she studied at the reputed Sorbonne surviving on only bread and tea sometimes having fainting spells from starvation, she got both a degree in mathematics and physics. She met the physicist Pierre Curie who shared both his heart and his lab with her. Longing for her birthplace Poland, she decided to return. After discovering that it was still impossible for women to have an academic career she went back to Paris where her lover Pierre was awaiting her and they immediately got married.
Another physicist, Henri Becquerel's work sparked her interest in radioactivity, who discovered that the element uranium was spontaneously a mysterious x-ray like radiation which could interact with photographic film, she found out that the element thorium emitted the same radiation. By focusing on a super radioactive ore called 'pitchblende' she discovered two new elements; Polonium (209), named for her native Poland and Radium (226), Latin word for 'ray' which was also used in coining the word 'radiation'.
By 1902 the Curies had extracted a tenth of a gram of pure radium chloride salt from several tons of pitchblende. Later that year, Pierre and Henri were nominated for a noble prize in physics overlooking Marie. Pierre took a stand in support of his Marie's well earned recognition and in 1903 three of them won the noble prize in physics, making her the first female in history to ever win a noble prize.
In 1906 Pierre was sadly crushed by a horse-drawn carriage as he crossed a busy intersection. Devastated and alone, poor Marie immersed herself in her research and took over Pierre's teaching position at the Sorbonne, making her the first female professor at the university. In 1911 she won another noble prize but this time in chemistry making her the only person till date to ever win two noble prizes in two different science courses.
BENEFITS OF HER RESEARCH
- Treatment of cancer Patients
- Nuclear reactors
- Nuclear plants to produce energy
- X-rays
- Restore sight to the blind
- Sterilize medical instruments
- Laid groundwork for our understanding of physics and chemistry
and many more
She died on July 4, 1934 at the age of 66 near Sallanches France of bone marrow disease and many believe it could have been due to her radioactive exposure. Now if Marie hadn't gone through all the stress of getting her higher education despite being told not to all because she was a woman, her discoveries could have only been found out by another person many years later or maybe it wouldn't have been discovered at all.
Marie Sklodowska Curie personally is a role model of mine, reminding me to do what will make me happy despite being told not to either because I'm a girl or whatever other reason this world has to try and hold me back.
Always remember that you can do what you want no matter what people say and start achieving that goal instead of archiving it. We should all be grateful to Marie for not giving into sexist claims that denied girls of education but instead providing the foundation for most of the oncology research we have going on today.
