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MARIE SKLODOWSKA CURIE opened up the science of radioactivity. She is best known as the discoverer of the radioactive elements polonium and radium and as the first person to win two Nobel prizes. For scientists and the public, her radium was a key to a basic change in our understanding of matter and energy. Her work not only influenced the development of fundamental science but also ushered in a new era in medical research and treatment.

Maria Skłodowska was born in Warsaw, in the Russian partition of Poland, on 7 November 1867, the fifth and youngest child of well-known teachers Bronisława and Władysław Skłodowski. Maria's older siblings were Zofia (born 1862), Józef (1863), Bronisława (1865) and Helena (1866).

Before Manya turned 11, her eldest sister had died of typhus and her mother had died of tuberculosis. Despite these losses, Manya graduated from high school at 15 with the highest honors.After graduating, however, she suffered from a nervous illness, which left her feeling too tired to do anything. It may have been what modern doctors call depression. Her father sent her to visit cousins in the countryside, where she could spend a carefree year.

Мария в 15 лет

So Maria spent threeyears in a village 150 kilometers from Warsaw. She was hired by the owner of a beet-sugar factory to teach his children Maria used her free hours to read widely in many subjects. She found that she was best at math, physics, and chemistry. The Russian authorities had forbidden Poles to teach laboratory science, but a chemist in the beet-sugar factory gave Maria some lessons.

aria returned to Warsaw in 1889. Her father was now earning a better salary as head of a reform school, and was able to send money to Bronya in Paris each month. For another two years Maria went on working as a governess and tutor. On Sundays and evenings she secretly studied chemistry course at a “Museum,” which was actually an illegal lab for training Polish scientists.

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young Polish womantraveled economy-class from Warsaw to Paris in autumn 1891. She had enough money to cover university tuition, a small room and the cheapest food, but little else. Maria Sklodowska left behind not only her beloved father and country but her very name. She registered at the famous Sorbonne university as Marie, the French form of Maria.

Marie was not as well prepared as her fellow students. Nevertheless, through hard work she completed master’s degrees in physics and math in only three years. Living on her own for the first time, she focused so hard on her studies that she sometimes forgot to eat.

arie's superior work in physics won her a scholarship. And a group of industrialists, the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry, paid her to investigate the magnetic properties of different steels. To carry out the work she needed a lab.

Marie and Pierre Curie caricatured inVanity Fair, 22 December 1904. CHF Collections.

ierre Curie had a lab,so Marie was introduced to him in spring 1894. He had the impressive title of Laboratory Chief at the Paris Municipal School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry. In fact his lab facilities were poor, but he let Marie work there. Curie, about 10 years older than Marie, had made important scientific discoveries on magnetism and crystals. But he had never bothered to complete a doctoral thesis.

s the relationship between Pierre and Marie deepened, he convinced her that she should pursue science in Paris, not return to Poland for good. She in turn convinced him to write up his magnetism research and get a doctoral degree. He was then promoted to a professorship, but his teaching duties grew, and his lab got no better.

ierre and Marie married in July 1895. Over the next two years, Marie completed her research on the magnetic properties of steels. She submitted her final results shortly before giving birth to their first daughter, Irène, in September 1897. Pierre’s father, a retired doctor, moved in with them and helped raise Irène. Marie began looking for a research topic that would earn her a doctorate in science. No woman in the world had yet completed that degree.

Pregnant Marie, Pierre and daughter Irene in 1904

EALTH AND FINANCIAL CONCERNS were not the only problems to plague the Curies as Marie wound up her thesis research. Although in the course of her thesis work the prestigious French Academy of Sciences had recognized Marie's scientific promise by awarding her a prize on three occasions--and such prizes could be a significant source of income for researchers--the academy dealt the Curies a blow by denying membership to Pierre in 1902. At about the same time Marie's beloved father died in Poland following a difficult gall bladder operation.

New Responsibilities and Concerns

O LAB WAS PROVIDED with Pierre's PCN position, so the Curies maintained their lab at the shed. Although Pierre's salary rose, his teaching load doubled, since he kept his position at the Municipal School also. The Curies noted the subsequent deterioration in his health. They failed to consider a possible link between Pierre's attacks of severe pain and the intense radiation they were working with. Marie herself had lost nearly 20 pounds while doing her thesis research, and both Curies did permanent damage to their fingertips from their unprotected exposure to highly radioactive materials.

The Nobel Prize and Its Aftermath

ARIE WAS NOT REALLY NOMINATEDfor her first Nobel Prize. From the inception of the award in 1901, the Nobel Prizes have been made after a lengthy evaluation of the merits of nominees. In 1903 the French Academy of Sciences nominated Henri Becquerel and Pierre -- but not Marie -- Curie as candidates for the physics prize. If not for the intervention of a member of the nominating committee, Swedish mathematician Magnus Goesta Mittag-Leffler, Marie might have been denied recognition for her work. But Mittag-Leffler, an advocate of women scientists, wrote Pierre advising him of the situation. In his reply Pierre made clear that a Nobel Prize for research in radioactivity that failed to acknowledge Marie's pivotal role would be a travesty. Some strings were pulled, and a nomination of Marie Curie in 1902 was validated for 1903.

В 1911 году Кюри была единственной женщиной для участия в конференции по физике в Бельгии.

IERRE CURIE WAS NOT FATED to complete that day's activities. After working in the laboratory all morning, he braved the heavy rain, umbrella in hand, and traveled across Paris to his luncheon meeting. There he spoke forcefully on a number of issues that concerned him, including widening career options for junior faculty and drafting legal codes to help prevent laboratory accidents.
After the meeting was over he headed out toward his publisher in the rain, only to find that the doors were locked because of a strike. Hurrying to cross the street, he was run over by a horse-drawn wagon with a load of military uniforms, weighing some six tons. He was killed instantly.

When Pierre's father learned that his son had been killed crossing a Paris street in traffic on a rainy day, he said, “What was he dreaming of this time?” (Painting by Childe Hassam, 1893) Curie family gravestone

In detail about history of discoveries and important points of life will tell video

urie continued to do research on radioactivity, but her main focus shifted to running the Radium Institute. She made the Institute a center for measuring the radium content of various products used by doctors and others. She also made it a world center for research, carefully selecting several dozen scientists and keeping up with the progress of each. Her researchers made many discoveries. In 1934, she was delighted when her daughter Irène and Irène’s husband, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, discovered artificial radioactivity at the Radium Institute.

Curie did not live to see Irène and Frédéric receive the 1935 Nobel Prize for their discovery.

. On July 4, 1934, Marie Curie died of aplastic anemia, a blood disease that often results from getting too much radiation. She was buried next to Pierre. In 1995 the remains of the pair were transferred to the majestic Pantheon in Paris, where they now lie alongside France’s greatest citizens. The president of France declared that the transfer demonstrated the nation’s respect for all those, like the Curies, “who dedicate themselves to science.”