Marie Curie

Physicist and Chemist

Marie Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland in 1867. She went to Paris to study at the Sorbonne, where she met Pierre Curie, a fellow scientist and her great love.

Scientist Henri Becquerel had discovered a mysterious glow coming from uranium salts.

Marie was fascinated by the glow and wanted to know what it was and why it was happening. In a stuffy shed, she and Pierre went to work using Pierre's electrometer, Marie examined `glowing' compounds and discovered that the energy being produced came from the uranium atom itself. She started calling the effect '' radioactivity''. To find the source, she and Pierre ground up and filtered down other radioactive materilas, in doing so discovering two new radioactive elements: polonium and radium.

The Curies received a Nobel Prize in physics in 1903, for the discovery of radiation. In 1911 Marie won a Nobel prize in chemistry for her discovery of and research into polonium and radium.

Sadly,the radiation from their experiments was making Pierre and Marie sick. Their long-term exposure made them both tired and achy -we now understand that the effects of radiation poisoning are deadly. In 1906, Pierre was killed in a horse - carriege accident. Despite her grief, Marie continued to work and discovered that radium could treat cancer. She spent hours collecting radon for hospitals even though it left her feeling weak.

Marie Curie did scentific work because she loved it and dangerous work because the world neeed it. Her life and and achievements continue to inspire scientists today.