Marie Curie- was born in 1867 in Poland to Piano player and Teacher Bronsilawa Boguska and mathematics and physics professor, Wladyslaw Sklodowski. She became a governess at the age of 18 putting her younger sister in school, only if her sister promised to return the favor, which she did. She went traveled to Paris to follow in her father’s footsteps, studying mathematics, physics and chemistry at the Sorbonne; it was there where she met the man she would call her husband Pierre Curie (Nobelprize.org).
Marie and Pierre work alongside each other and become the first to work with polonium and radium; Marie actually named polonium after her home country Poland (Nobelprize.org). Pierre was very concerned with the physical properties of polonium and radium, so Marie and one of Pierre’s pupils Mr. Debierne were able to accomplish this difficult task. The Marie received her doctorate in 1903 and in the same year the Curies were awarded the Nobel Prized for their work with radium along with French Physicist Antoine Henri Bacquerel (Nobelprize.org). A few years down the road she received yet another Nobel Prize in 1911 in Chemistry for her extensive work with radioactivity, becoming the first women to ever receive a this honor and the only person in history to receive two (Nobelprize.org).
Unfortunately she died of Leukemia due to years of exposure to radiation. She to me is the most remarkable women because she discovered the use of radiation as a form of treating cancer; she saved a lot of lives in her time and continues to save lives, because of her discovery she opened the door for more advance methods of threaty cancer. Although, radiation has it’s negative affects it gives those suffering with cancer hope and because of that she will always be remembered and anyone who has ever cancer should thank God for giving her the talent and thank her for using it. This accomplishment was not easy to come by as we have learned through this course, science and medicine was a male profession, women were not recieved with open arms. She accomplished alot in her time and I am glad I have this knowledge now.
One other cool fact was that she was the person who coined the phrase “radioactivity” Absolutely amazing!!
Sources:
Marie Curie - Biography". Nobelprize.org. 11 Dec 2010 http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureates/1903/marie-curie-bio.html
I love reading and studying about pioneer women who have gone before us. These women bucked a system that historically considered them second-class and basically incompetent to achieve anything worthwhile, other than having children and serving a husband. Don't get me wrong, being a wife and mother is a noble and worthwhile calling, and one that many find fulfilling, but there were those women in history who refused to be pigeonholed into that role, because they had something else to offer -not something better, just something different. Our society still has a long way to go to achieve gender equality, but we have achieved so much in the past 100 years. The lives of countless people have been changed by these pioneer women.
ReplyDeleteI took a women in music course ,during a project I came a across an article about Marie Curie. Before this article, I was not aware of her accomplishment and the contribution she made in cancer research. She is truly remarkable.
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