Life of Marie Curie

    Life of Marie Curie

Marie Curie or also known as Marja Salomea Sklodowska was born in Warsaw, Poland. At that time, Poland was under control of Russia and so everyone especially Marie’s family was taught how to speak in Russian language. Her father was a pianist and a teacher and her mother was also a teacher. When Marie was young and studying in school, the teacher taught the children in the class Poland language secretly but when the principal came into the class, the kids pretended they were learning Russian language. Marie was very smart in all her learning so she skipped 2 grades and she was in a class with kids 2 years  older than her. When her father lost her job, the family became very poor and Marie strived hard to get back to the family back together. 2 years after her mother had passed away, Marie couldn't think of going to University because it was against the law of the land for girls to go to universities. But the only University in Europe that allowed women was Sorbonne University in Paris, France. In 1891, Marie arrived in Paris and started studying in Sorbonne University. In 1893, Marie had a maths degree and then a year later, she had a physics degree. Later on she had a doctor degree and she was the first woman to have a doctor degree. During when she was in class and the teacher was talking in French, she couldn't understand what he was saying because she didn't know French very much. Usually, she had a dictionary to translate the words and write them in Polish on her book and then she could understand. She worked as a researcher to a well-known physicist, Gabriel Lippmann. After when Marie graduated, a man named Pierre who was a French scientist asked her to marry him. So in 1895, Marie and Pierre got married and they both worked the same job together as one team. In 1898 during when they were working in the laboratory shed, a grain of something glowed. Marie and Pierre by this stage called it radium. They had produced pure radium but it was a very tiny amount which was about 0.19 of a gram. Until it was 1902, Marie had won 2 Nobel prizes which were the super Oscars  for science. She won them for discovering radioactive (the dangerous disease on  earth). Radioactive is not good for you but Marie and Pierre never knew that it was that bad. They were handling radioactive things such as radium and polonium with their hands. In 1906, Pierre got run over by a horse and a wagon and passed away. Marie was very sad so she continued on her science work through all her life. The teachers and professors were very sad about Pierre’s death so they asked Marie to take place of Pierre to be professor of physics and by that job, she was known as the first woman professor in France. In 1914, France opened the Radium Institute and put Marie in charge. During Marie’s research, she was always dizzy, tired, low-fever and she always had colds. For the rest of her life, she investigated the very innards of an atom to find out what it was, what it did and how it did. She also invented “nuclear medicine” using radiation to cure people and cancer. When World War I had started, Marie Curie put the institute's radium in a bank vault, then set about turning around motorcars into mobile X-ray units for finding bullets and broken bones in soldiers. After when the World War I ended, Marie’s hometown gained independence and she continued on her work. Marie published a book called “Radioactive Substances” which came as a great book to read. At the age of 66, Marie died on 4th July 1934 of radiation sickness called leukemia. A year after she died, her daughter, Irene had died the same reason as her mother. Marie was the first person to have radiation sickness in the world.

Marie Curie once said “Scientists in the laboratory are not mere technician, but also children confronting nature as though it is a fairytale.” 

There are 2 craters named after Marie Curie; one on the moon and the other on Mars. She is also on stamps throughout the world especially North Korea.

I conclude that Marie is the best scientist and should be alive today for creating the world beautiful and studying really hard to discover radium and polonium.

By: Raheal Mengistu