If you ask anyone who was Marie Curie, she will surely tell you that she is the most famous scientist in history. This extraordinary woman opened a path that seemed forbidden to the majority and constituted one of the first feminine referents in the world of science . In Supercurious We suggest you accompany us to know Who Marie Curie was and to find out everything you need to know about her.
It has sometimes been claimed that the lack of female vocations related to scientific specialties was due, among other things, to the lack of women who could serve as references in many branches of science. In Spain For example, science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers have only 28% female students.
It is important that scientific women be more visible so that these referents exist and the so-called "glass ceiling" of women in these types of studies is broken. On February 11 was proclaimed by the UN the Women's and Girl's Day in Science , to "make visible the work of the researchers and boost the role of women in science". On previous occasions, we have paid tribute to important Scientific Women that we should all know (and, above all, recognize). Today, however, we want to get closer to who Marie Curie was.
Who was Marie Curie: discover her life, her relationship with Pierre and her scientific contributions
Marie Curie is still the most famous scientific woman in history. Was the first woman to win a Nobel prize and the first person to win two Nobel Prizes : the first one was physics together with her husband Pierre Curie and the second one was chemistry solo. In addition, she remains the only person, regardless of sex, who has won two Nobel Prizes in two different categories.
So that you can go deeper and know who Marie Curie was, in addition to the following information, we also suggest that you meet some of her most famous quotes with this selection of Marie Curie phrases .
1. Brief Biography of Marie Curie
Born in Warsaw on November 7, 1867, her maiden name was Maria Sklodowska. Her parents were teachers and she was his fifth child. He began formal education at age 10 and graduated with a "gold medal". Unfortunately, he could not continue his university studies in a formal way because due to the invasions that his homeland had suffered, the laws had been modified so that access to the university was forbidden to women .
However, Polish girls did not give up and created a secret itinerant university: the Uniwersytet Latajacy , who taught classes in private homes. Marie worked as a private teacher in order to raise the money to pay her tuition at the Sorbonne. Paris . When he got it, he moved to where his sister already lived and with great efforts and even going hungry, he got his first degree in physics and then in chemistry.
In 1894 he met Pierre Curie and science united them. Pierre was an instructor at the Higher School of Physics and Industrial Chemistry in Paris. They married in 1895 and although at first they worked on different projects, when Marie discovered radioactivity, Pierre left her job to help her in her investigations . They had two daughters, Irene and Ève. Together with Pierre they won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 and, after the death of her husband, in 1911 she won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.
She suffered personal discredit due to the relationship she maintained, once a widow, with one of her husband's students: Paul Langevin. If you want to know what happened, you can read it here: The romance that scandalized the Nobel Prize committee . It is especially praiseworthy the personal and economic effort made in favor of the French soldiers during the First World War and that his adopted country never thanked him.
He died in France in 1934 due to aplastic anemia possibly caused by prolonged exposure to radiation. In the year 1995, the remains of Marie and Pierre Curie were transferred to the Panthéon in Paris , place where you rest the most famous characters of France. Curie became the first woman to rest in that place of honor in which there are only five women.
2. Pierre and Marie Curie: contributions and marriage
As we have already mentioned, Marie and Pierre were married in 1985 (although at first she rejected Pierre's proposal because her intention was to return to Poland). He told her that he would follow her to his country if necessary. It was Marie who returned to Paris because she could not work in Poland. Soon both they worked together and discovered two new chemical elements: polonium and radium .
In 1903 the Nobel was going to fall solely on Pierre, since they did not want to give it to Marie for being a woman. Pierre said he would not accept the award if he did not recognize Marie's work together with his . The spouses shared the award with Henri Becquerel. Sadly, Pierre died in an unfortunate accident on April 19, 1906 in which he was struck by a horse-drawn carriage and suffered a skull fracture.
The daughter of the marriage, Iréne Joliot-Curie, followed in the footsteps of her parents and developed her work in the field of science, obtaining the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 together with her husband Frédéric Joliot-Curie.
3. Marie Curie movie
If you want to continue deepening its history, you will be interested to know that in 2016 the movie of Marie Curie: a German, Polish and French co-production that narrates the life of Marie Curie and explains who was Marie Curie and her life after the death of her husband Pierre. Special emphasis is placed on the achievement that represented the first woman to get a chair at the Sorbonne in Paris and a more human side, which we have already discussed, his love for a married scientist at the time announcing the achievement of his Nobel Prize of chemistry.
Here we finish our approach to who Marie Curie was, but now the time has come for you to send us your opinion. Leave us a comment and tell us, did you already know all the details of who Marie Curie was in the history of science? Do you know any anecdote of your life that you want to share with us? We await your comments!