Maria Salomea Skłodowska or more famously known as just Marie Curie is remembered as the improver of the X-Ray Machine. X-Ray Machines are very important in many, many ways and most people know at least one of these important uses but I’ll just name a few anyway. X-rays help doctors find out what is wrong with a person from something as simple as a broken bone to find a tumor in one’s brain. The principles of the X-Ray machine led to the development of MRI’s and the CT scan. Not only that, but Marie Curie also has a history with the Nobel Prize. She was the first woman to win the prize and also the first and only woman to win the prize TWICE. If you think that can’t be topped, well it can. Marie Curie’s two Nobel Prizes were won in two different scientific fields! Those two fields are physics and chemistry making Curie the only person to win two prizes and that too in two different areas! If that wasn’t enough Marie Curie’s family has a total of FIVE Nobel prizes. Not only that, but Mrs. Curie also founded two elements. Radium (which she created of the Latin word ray,) and Polonium (after her home country of Poland.) Now that we see how important Marie Curie’s life was, let's scan deeper and radiate our way into the life of Marie Curie.
Maria Skłodowska was born on November 7, 1867, in Warsaw, Poland. Poland at the time was called the Congress Kingdom of Poland, which was a part of Russia. Marie or Manya as she was called back then was the youngest of five children. Her siblings were named Zosia, Józef, Bronya, and Hela. Skłodowska’s parents were both teachers.,Maria Skłodowska like her father Władysław, believed strongly that Poland should be a free country. Skłodowska really took after her father and learned science from him early on and was also very curious. When Skłodowska was only ten tragedy struck and her mother Bronislawa died of tuberculosis. Even after this horrific event Skłodowska would still top her school but couldn’t go to the University of Warsaw for it had been an all-male school. So instead, Skłodowska did her classes in Warsaw’s dubbed ‘floating university.’ where she would take her classes in secret. Maria wasn’t the only one in her family with big dreams. Her sister Bronya, too wanted to travel the world and earn an official degree. So, Maria made a deal with Bronya. She said that she would support and help Bronya anyway she can and when Bronya was finished with her studies she would return the favor. Maire would work as a tutor and governess for about 4-5 years while in her free time studying and reading math, chemistry, and physics. Marie finally had her chance and enrolled in the Sorbonne in Paris in 1891. To fit in more, the at-the-time Maria Salomea Skłodowska changed to Marie Salomea Skłodowska. Marie immersed herself in her studies but since she was short on money, her health went down, surviving on bread, butter, and tea. Somehow, Marie got her physics degree in 1891 and a math degree in 1893.
After graduating from Sorbonne University, Marie got a commission to perform tests on steel and their magnetic properties and had all her equipment except a lab. While searching Marie was introduced by her colleague to Pierre Curie in 1894, who was a Professor at the School of Physics. The following year, the current Marie Salomea Skłodowska married Pierre Curie and then changed her name to Marie Curie. The two were a brilliant pair, a scientific dynamic duo. The couple worked at Sorbonne, on separate project’s till 1896 when a new phenomenon was discovered by Henri Becquerel. Marie would, later on, call this phenomenon radioactivity. With the new discovery of radioactivity, Marie was able to find and isolate polonium. She named polonium after her birth country, Poland. A few months later, Curie discovered Radium. Once Marie and discovered Radium, Pierre set aside his own projects to help her out as well. Curie was able to figure out a way to separate radium from radioactive residues in allowing her to study its properties. Therapeutic properties in specific.
Marie would then re-create the x-ray machine better from the original by German scientist Wilhelm Roentgen and create smaller x-ray machines that medics could use while at war. Marie would then have two girls who would go on to get Nobel Prizes themselves. Marie would write many books and be a part of many scientific clubs and communities until unfortunately, she died on July 4, 1934, at the age of 66 years.
Marie Curie accomplished a lot of things, but still somehow doesn’t get enough attention for it. You wouldn’t believe it when I tell you this, but I didn’t name everything Marie Curie did. Because there's that much. This is why I feel Marie Curie is very underappreciated. Is Marie your type of hero? Did you like the way she strived for what she believed even when times were bad? If you liked that, get ready because we are continuing on the medical train and ironically into the life of Sir Medicator!