The Triumphs and Tragedies of Marie Curie
Jasmine Pandya
Marie Curie born as Maria Salomea Skłodowska, had many triumphs and tragedies in her life. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. A few of Marie Curie’s major triumphs were discovering polonium and radium. Also, she was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes. A tragedy that she had was that she died from pernicious anemia from radiation poisoning.
Maria Salomea Skłodowska was born on Freta Street in Poland, Warsaw on November 7, 1867. Her family was poor and had money trouble. Her nickname was Manya and she was the youngest of her four siblings. Manya’s siblings’ names were Sophia, the oldest, Bronisława, Helena, and Joseph. Her parents’ names were Bronisława and Vladislav Skłodowska. When Manya was eight years old, her sister Sophia died of typhoid fever. Two years later, her mother died of tuberculosis. Despite the depressing events going on at home, Manya excelled at school. She graduated at the top her class and earned a gold medal from her high school in 1883. After high school Manya suffered from a nervous condition that was most likely depression, so her father arranged for her and Helena to take a year off to visit their relatives in the Polish countryside.
After Manya’s year off, she went back to Warsaw. Manya tried to financially help her family by giving private lessons to school children. Manya was introduced to the Flying University, where she and Bronya (her sister Bronisława) began taking classes. The Flying University was a secret school for people who wanted to learn more. In return, the students were supposed to educators and teach people. The participation was dangerous and if it was discovered, the teachers and students might be imprisoned.
Maria’s sister Bronisława wanted to attend the Sorbonne, a college that had just recently accepted women, in Paris so she could become a doctor, but she didn’t have enough money. Maria made a plan for her sister. Maria would become a governess, which is someone who is payed to teach and look after children, and send most of the money that she earned to Bronya in Paris. With their father, Bronya, and Maria’s savings, Bronya would be able to attend the Sorbonne. After Bronya became a doctor, she would help Maria with school. Eventually Bronya agreed to the plan and left for Paris while Maria left for a governess post in Szczuki, Poland. While governing for the Zorawski family, she met Kazmierz, who was the oldest child, who came home from a university and they fell in love. The Zorawskis refused to let their son marry a poor governess and the couple separated. Maria kept working for the family, though, because Bronya needed her help.
By 1891, there was enough money for her to join Bronya in Paris where she decided to study physics. Maria changed her name to Marie, the French version of her name to fit in better. I the beginning, Marie stayed withe Bronya and her husband, but their house was an hour from the Sorbonne. Also, Bronya liked to have her Polish friends over, so it was difficult for Marie to study. Marie decided to move closer to the university, to the cheapest apartment she found. It was on top of many stairs. The apartment was so cold in the winter that her water basin often turned to ice at night. She worked long at the school library so she wouldn’t have to heat her apartment. MArie did not want to spend money and waste time cooking so most of her meals were bread, butter, radishes, and tea. She sometimes fainted from hunger and they stayed with Bronya until she got better. Marie worked hard and earned a master’s degree in physics and a math degree.
In 1891 a friend introduced Marie, who was looking for work space, to Pierre Curie who might help her with finding lab space. Oon after they met, Pierre asked her to marry him. A year later, she and Pierre got married. Sometime later Marie and Pierre had a baby girl named Iréne.
Marie decided to get a doctorate in physics. She heard about a French physicists Henri Becquerel and his discoveries of uranium rays. It fascinated her. Marie thought that Becquerel’s rays were an important clue for the structure of atoms. So she began working right away and became the first woman in Europe to earn a doctorate in science.
Marie started studying uranium. She found that thorium gave the same type of rays that uranium did. Marie also discovered that most of the rays were coming from the rocks called pitchblende. It gave off more radiation than expected. In July 1898 Marie announced that she had discovered a new element- polonium and in December of the same year, she announced the discovery of radium. Pierre and Marie proved that radium was a new element on July 21, 1902. Marie kept working to find out all that she could about radium. Overexposure to radioactivity like radium can cause burnt, numb fingers, exhaustion, and pain. That is what happened to Pierre and Marie. Marie even had a miscarriage and lost much weight. Radium had good benefits. It could kill healthy tissue so doctors tested it on diseased blood cells and found that it killed them too. People began treating cancer with radium. This treatment was called "Curietherapy".
In November 1903, they got the Humphry Davy Medal in chemistry and in December of that year they got the Nobel Prize for physics. Marie was the first Polish person to earn the prize. They were supposed to travel to Sweden for the prize but Marie was to sick to go. So in 1905, they went to Sweden to receive the prize.
In 1904 MArie’s daughter Ève was born in December. Also in 1904 Pierre became a professor at the Sorbonne University and Marie was made head of Pierre’s lab. So they were making more money.
In 1906, after the Curie family went on vacation in the country, Pierre died. He died by a horse drawn carriage crushing his skull. After less than a month, Marie took Pierre’s job at the Sorbonne.
Around 1911, there was a scandal that said Paul Langevin and Marie Curie were in love. They were not. They were just good friends. Afterwards, Marie found out that she had won a second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry. She was the first person to win two of these.
World War One broke out and France, Poland, and other countries were under attack. MArie Curie took as many X-ray equipments as possible and a fleet of 20 which became known as petit Curies, or “Little Curies”. Marie, her daughter Irène, and volunteers drove the little Curies to the front lines. Marie taught women how to use the X-ray equipment so more could get to the battlefields. When the war ended in November 1918 France won. Also, Poland became a free, independent country.
When the war was over, Marie tried to do some more experiments but she didn’t have enough money. So and American writer, Missy Meloney, who was impressed by Marie, encouraged the American women to donate $100,000 for Marie to buy a gram of radium. In 1921 Marie went to the United States of America to receive the donation. She had many achievements in the next ten years and her daughter Irène and her husband Frédéric Joliot worked with her as well. In 1929 the American women donated another gram of radium. In 1934 in July, at 66 years old, Marie Curie died from aplastic anemia from radiation exposure. Marie and Pierre Curie’s coffins were moved to the Pantheon which was France’s celebrated mausoleum for the great men of France. Marie was the first woman to be buried there for her accomplishments, not her husband’s.
Marie Curie gave her life to science. She was an accomplished woman with many triumphs and tragedies in her life including being the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and prejudice because she was a woman. Marie became one of the best-known scientists in history.