Marie Curie: Early Life and Discoveries

Early Life and Education

• Marie Curie's birth name was Maria Skłodowska
• She was born in Warsaw, Poland.
• Marie faced significant challenges as a woman in a time when women could not pursue higher education
• She studied secretly after working as a governess to save money for college
• She pursued her education at the Sorbonne in Paris.
• She married Pierre Curie, a renowned physicist.

Discovery and Collaboration

• Marie Curie was fascinated by Henri Becquerel's discovery of radioactivity.
• She collaborated with her husband, Pierre, to study uranium ore (pitchblende).
• In 1898, they discovered two new radioactive elements: polonium and radium.
• They shared the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics with Becquerel for this discovery.
• Pierre Curie abandoned his research to join his wife's work.
• They published numerous landmark joint papers.

Further Recognition and Cancer Treatment

• Marie Curie received a second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry in 1911.
• Marie Curie became the first person to win two Nobel Prizes.
• Curie worked with chemist André-Louis Debierne to isolate radium.
• Radium became crucial for radiotherapy.