Marie+Curie

 Marie Curie The Discoverer of Radiation and Polonium

Marie Curie was born on November 7, 1867 in Warsaw, Poland to Bronsitwa Boguska and Ladislas Sklowdowska. Her name was Manya when she was born. Her siblings were Zosia, Jozef, Bronya, and Hela. When she was 11, her mother, Bronsitwa, died. It was a very heartbreaking time with the loss of her mother, but she lived on. She was a hard worker in school​ and always did her best. When she got older she wanted to go to Sorbonne University in Paris. But she couldn't afford it, so she worked as a tutor at a family's house until she could afford to go. At Sorbonne, she studied math and physics. She enjoyed it very much. It was in Paris where she changed her name from Manya to the French version, Marie.

​Once she finished her schooling, she started looking for a lab to do her work. She was told to go and see Pierre Curie. She got her lab, a cramped, damp storeroom. Through her research she began to fall in love with Pierre. One day, he asked her to marry him. She hesitated at first, but finally said yes. They were married July 25th, 1895. Her and Pierre worked together on their research. They worked in The Radium Institute. There they discovered radium and polonium. Marie invented the word "radioactivity" and, in honor of her home country, Poland, she called the other element "polonium." She discovered that the strength of rays that came out depended on the kind of uranium conpound. Her and Pierre learned that if they had a certain amount of uranium atoms, they get a certain intensity of radiation. Marie and Pierre were not sure if radioactive energy came from atoms. They tested all known elements to determine if other elements or minerals would make air conduct better and they used very rare elements. Also, they learned in 1898 that thorium compounds emit Bacquerel rays. They had two children, Irene and Eve. Pierre, sadly, was run over by a heavy cart weighing 6 tons. He died instantly of a crushed skull. She was widowed with two children. In 1903, she wrote a thesis called "Research on Radioactive Substances" that was published the same year.  Marie was one of the most distinguished scientists of her time. She wanted to learn and understand radium better and she did. She was the first women to win the Nobel Prize in Physics, she won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and she was the first person ever to win the Nobel Prize twice! I think that her research was for the good of the world because it was found that radiation kills cancer cells. Also, it let people know about radiation and polonium. Marie died July 4th, 1934 of aplastic anemia from radiation poisening.

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__Sources __ 1. "Marie Curie: A Brilliant Life" MacLeod, Elizabeth Kids Can Press Ltd. 2004 2. "Marie Curie" Lassievr, Allison Franklin Watts 2003 3. "Marie Curie Bioigraphical Essay" [] 4. "Marie Curie" [] 5. "Marie Curie" [] 6. "Marie Curie: Discovery of Radium" [] <span style="color: #f07a7a; font-family: 'Lucida Sans Unicode','Lucida Grande',sans-serif;">7."Marie Curie: Physicist/Scientist" []