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Marie Curie, born in 1867 in Warsaw in Poland, was the daughter of Professor Sklodowski who lectured in science at the Lycee and gave his children a great interest in his subject. Marie was fiercely patriotic, having suffered under Russian suppression and later, as a student when Poland was under Austrian rule, she joined a revolutionary group of young people. She never forgot her native land. Her intention was to study at the University of Cracow but entry into a science course was denied her. Cooking was offered instead. She finally went to Paris to the Sorbonne where women were welcome. There were many English women there because England also at that time did not allow women to take medical degree
At the Sorbonne she met Pierre Curie, a noted lecturer, and they were married in 1895, producing two daughters who were to follow in their footsteps. It was a happy marriage not least because of their common interest in research into radioactivity. It is impossible to separate their contribution to the work but to Marie goes the honour of discovering polonium (named after her native Poland) and radium for which both Curies and Henri Becquerel received the 1904 Nobel Prize for Physics. After Pierre's sudden death in 1906, Marie continued her work, receiving many honours including another Nobel Prize, this time for chemistry. She died in 1934 of leukaemia, probably caused by exposure to radium. She had given the world a great and potent weapon against diseases such as cancer, tumours and skin diseases but also against the bacteria of typhus, cholera and anthrax. Her work with her husband was also an early step leading to the release of the energy of the atom, which must be viewed these days as a mixed blessing. She did however prove that women are not inferior to men in science. |