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Day 13 - Marie Curie
Mar. 13th, 2018 09:27 amMarie Curie
Marie Curie was an extraordinary person. That must be said from the outset. She is perhaps one the most brilliant minds of all time.
She was born in Poland, the youngest of 5 children. She lost her mother when she 10. She was atop student but could not attend university in Poland because she was not a man. She and her sister attended the “Floating University” – where students could study outside the political ideology of, in Marie’s case, Russia. She worked to help her sister pay for school, tutoring while she studied math, physics and chemistry.
She moved to Paris to study at the Sorbonne and often went hungry to pay for it. She earned a master’s in Physics and a degree in mathematics as well.
She married Pierre Curie and she and her husband discovered radioactivity and two elements: polonium, named for her beloved Poland, and radium.
She was the first woman to win a Noble Prize and the first person to win two for different things as he won for Physics in 1903 and for Chemistry in 1911. She cared little for money and prizes and gave her money to friends and associates, as well as using prize moneys for scientific research instead of wealth.
During WWI, Marie Curie developed portable X-ray machines to be used near the battlefield in order to diagnose and save more war casualties. It is estimated that over a million soldiers were helped by her x-ray units and she never received any acknowledgement from France of her contribution.
Largely ignored by France, in 1996, she and her husband were interred in the Pantheon in Paris as distinguished French citizens.
Albert Einstein said of her: “Marie Curie is, of all celebrated beings, the only one whom fame has not corrupted.”
Her daughter Ève Curie wrote Madame Curie, a biography of her mother. Her other daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, won the Noble Prize in chemistry in 1935.
Here is a short bio of her with many photos:
The Photo of Madame Curie that we all have seen:
Marie Curie was an extraordinary person. That must be said from the outset. She is perhaps one the most brilliant minds of all time.
She was born in Poland, the youngest of 5 children. She lost her mother when she 10. She was atop student but could not attend university in Poland because she was not a man. She and her sister attended the “Floating University” – where students could study outside the political ideology of, in Marie’s case, Russia. She worked to help her sister pay for school, tutoring while she studied math, physics and chemistry.
She moved to Paris to study at the Sorbonne and often went hungry to pay for it. She earned a master’s in Physics and a degree in mathematics as well.
She married Pierre Curie and she and her husband discovered radioactivity and two elements: polonium, named for her beloved Poland, and radium.
She was the first woman to win a Noble Prize and the first person to win two for different things as he won for Physics in 1903 and for Chemistry in 1911. She cared little for money and prizes and gave her money to friends and associates, as well as using prize moneys for scientific research instead of wealth.
During WWI, Marie Curie developed portable X-ray machines to be used near the battlefield in order to diagnose and save more war casualties. It is estimated that over a million soldiers were helped by her x-ray units and she never received any acknowledgement from France of her contribution.
Largely ignored by France, in 1996, she and her husband were interred in the Pantheon in Paris as distinguished French citizens.
Albert Einstein said of her: “Marie Curie is, of all celebrated beings, the only one whom fame has not corrupted.”
Her daughter Ève Curie wrote Madame Curie, a biography of her mother. Her other daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, won the Noble Prize in chemistry in 1935.
Here is a short bio of her with many photos:
The Photo of Madame Curie that we all have seen:
