Imagine that you are in a laboratory, slaving over test tubes, spreadsheets, and dangerous chemicals with no ventilation. Days and days you have been working, and suddenly, you shout “Eureka!!!!” This was the most thrilling part of Marie Curie’s life, the day she discovered Polonium, her first major accomplishment in the world of science. She has helped mankind move one step further in understanding the universe.
Early Inspiration
Marie Curie was born Marya Salomea Sklodowska on November 7, 1867. She was born in the city of Warsaw, Poland. She was the youngest of the five children that were born to Bronislawa and Wladislaw Sklodowska. The other children in Curie’s family were Sophia, Jozef, Bronislawa, and Helen. They were each nicknamed to be Zosia, Jozio, Bronya, Hela, and Marie was Manya. They all lived at 16 Freta Street, and were all very close. The Sklodowska family were known to be quite smart, but Curie showed smarts beyond compare even at a very young age. When Bronya was years old and Curie was 4 years old, Bronya was cutting out letters and rearranging them into words, showing Curie how to do so and what they said. Later, Bronya was struggling to read a paper, and Curie grabbed the book and read it thoroughly. Smarts aren’t everything though, and she lacked the ability to cope with personal challenges, and it was very difficult to undergo physical hardship. This would be unfortunate to her in the future. In earlier, simpler times, when Curie was very young, she wandered about her father’s study gazing upon all of the wonderous tools he had. Her parents would talk about things at this time, and Curie was too young to understand. She soon began to listen to the conversation though, and most of the matters were not for her to listen to. One of the matters was her mother’s health. She had been diagnosed with tuberculosis, a very contagious and fatal disease. Her mother never let the children come within her arms reach, due to this condition. There were other health matters too though. Her sister Zosia and Bronya had been diagnosed with typhus, another fatal disease. Bronya got better, but Zosia died in 1875 of the disease. They all mourned the loss of Zosia, and this only made her mother’s condition worsen. Marie Curie was finding it difficult to understand that her sister was gone, but she would have to get used to feelings like that. Marie Curie was then enrolled in a school that was called Madame Sikorska’s school for girls. She was accelerated to her sister Hela’s class immediately. At this time, the Russian empire had Poland under their control, and schools were required to teach only Russian standards. This was kind of a secret school though, and they secretly taught Polish culture alongside Russian culture. There was a secret ring when an inspector came. The teacher would call a student up to the front, usually Marie Curie, and make them answer questions. She would answer them perfectly, and in flawless Russian. This was very hard for her because she was always afraid that she would mess up and ruin the school, but she never did. Curie worked hard at that school, though hard times fell upon her family. Her mother died when Curie was only ten. This sent her into an emotional downhill spiral that was getting worse due to other things. Her father was a Polish patriot, so he was demoted from his teaching job and evicted. She was also moved to a government-run high school called a gymnasium. She was very sad and scared, but she worked hard to make her mother and sister proud, if they were watching. She won a medal for her great academics on June 12, 1883 for being the valedictorian of her senior class.
Out of High School
Curie and her sister Bronya shared a common dream of going to the University of Sorbonne in Paris, but they didn’t have enough money, so they made a deal. Bronya was older, so she would go to college first while Curie worked to pay for it, and Bronya would return the favor when she was working after she got her degrees. So Curie found work. She worked as a tutor and a governess for a man named Mr. Zorawski, who had 3 sons and 4 daughters. All of the sons were off at college, while the 4 daughters stayed home. Of the 4 she taught 2. The ones she taught were Bronka, an 18 year old, who was very close in age to her, and a 10 year old named Andzia. The other daughters were a 3 year old and a 6-month old. She had a very good thing going, she lived with the Zorawskis and she had started a school for other girls at the house. It was popular among the friends and neighbors. Marie Curie also studied physics and math on the side. The Zorawskis had become almost like a second family to her, and she became quite close to them. Her days with the family were limited though, for her sister had just finished her studies at the Sorbonne, and Curie was soon to bid goodbye to Poland and become a part of Paris.
College Life
Curie said her goodbyes to the Zorawskis and left for college in 1891. Her life was about to begin. When she arrived in Paris, she found that her name in french would be Marie, instead of Marya. As soon as she signed up, she easily got accepted into the Sorbonne. She threw herself into studies of physics and mathematics. She barely could get by with her fees for attending the Sorbonne, and because of this, her health suffered. Curie often times could not afford to get meals, so she survived off of hot chocolate, buttered bread, and the occasional tea. She did not get a balanced diet, and constantly felt very weak and sick. She would not give up college though, even for her personal health, because she wanted to lead a legacy in the fields of physics and math, and nothing would stop her. She worked very hard, even with her poor health, and she eventually got her physics degree in 1893 and her math degree in 1894. Curie was quite proud of all that she had taken away from her degrees, and knew she would use them well in math and science.
Great Accomplishments and New Family
Curie began to work on chemistry after she got out of the Sorbonne. She worked on the magnetic parts of steel for her old professor Mr. Lippmann. She worked very hard on this work, but fate had other plans. She soon moved past that to working at radiation and its many elements. She was inspired by Henri Bereqwerel. He discovered a type of radiation that could not see through the human flesh but was still radioactive. While Curie was working on this, an old colleague from the Sorbonne introduced her and a man named Pierre Curie. The two of them started to work together and fell in love. Pierre, however had a hard time getting her to marry him. He was rejected once when he asked, because she wanted to be professional. He had to build a very strong trust and bond with her first, but he succeeded. On July 26, 1895, Marie Sklodowska married Pierre Curie, becoming Marie Curie. The couple moved into a small apartment together soon after their marriage. They honeymooned by going on a bicycle trip around Paris. After that, she and Pierre began working together on chemistry. Before he met Marie Curie, Pierre had studied crystals and taught at a university, but he now helped her with her work while still teaching. Marie, on the other hand, had been studying an expensive material called pitchblende. It contains Uranium, but she found out that it was giving out 4 times more radiation than accounted for by the radiation in Uranium. She began her investigation. Later, she found that there were two more elements in pitchblende. The two elements would actually start as Uranium, but would change to their new state by giving off radiation. She named them Polonium, after her home country Poland, and Radium, after radiation. She and Pierre announced their discovery in 1898 and they were so proud. These discoveries were important because Polonium is used to remove static charge on textiles and brushes to remove dust on photographic film. Also, Polonium is used as a lightweight heat source for space satellites. Radium is used to create Radon gas, which is used as treatment to cure some cancers! However, not all of this was good. Both Marie and Pierre’s health had begun to go downhill since the day they started to work with radioactivity. Marie was getting sick very often and started sleepwalking and Pierre had been getting nauseous and sick. Later, people found the cause of this was breathing in too much Radon, another element that is the leading cause of lung cancer today. The couple began to want more than work though--they wanted a child. So, on September 12, 1897, Irene Curie was born. When Irene was born, they moved out of their small apartment and moved into 24 Rue de la Glaciere, near the school that Pierre taught at. This daughter changed their lives greatly. They now had to work harder than ever to support feeding the child and paying off their new house. Pierre’s father often times had to babysit Irene while Pierre and Marie Curie were at work, but he was a nice man who was good with children, and he lived close, so he was perfect for the job. Marie Curie’s own father died a few years later on May 14, 1902. Marie Curie and Pierre won their first Nobel prize for chemistry in 1903. They shared it with Gustave Bemont, who helped discover Radium. At that moment, Marie Curie became the first woman to win the Nobel Prize. Marie and Pierre Curie’s health began to worsen dramatically, and many times they could not accept an award due to their sickness. Though they were able to have one last child, their daughter Eve, who was only two when her father, Pierre Curie, died of an accident on the road where a car hit him. Curie threw herself into work after her husband died. This was her way of grieving the loss. She worked hard, and eventually got another Nobel prize for physics in 1911. Curie now became the first person, man or woman, to win two Nobel prizes. Curie’s first daughter Irene also went on to get her own Nobel prize for chemistry in 1935 for discovering artificial radioactivity.
Beyond Chemistry
Marie Curie also did things outside of her own chemistry though. When World War 1 started in 1914, she helped equip medical vehicles with x-ray machinery. Due to her very large knowledge of radiation, she was chosen to do this. She stopped working when the war ended in 1918. She later died on July 4, 1934 of leukemia. All of her exposure to radiation and Radon caused the disease.
Throughout her life, Marie Curie greatly contributed to the world of chemistry. She inspired many other people to look at the world not as what has been done, but what has not. She sacrificed her health for this accomplishment, and her life, would you have done the same for the good of mankind?
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