The remarkable biography of Marie Curie, who overcame poverty and prejudice to become the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, discovered radium and polonium, and forever changed science and medicine.
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In the entire history of science, no woman has contributed more, overcome greater obstacles, or inspired more future generations than Marie Curie. The first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences, and the first female professor at the University of Paris, Marie Curie didn't just break barriers—she obliterated them through sheer brilliance, determination, and an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.
Related: Learn more about Marie Curie: The Woman Who Changed Science Forever (Part 2)
Related: Learn more about Marie Curie: The Woman Who Changed Science Forever (Part 3)
Related: Learn more about Marie Curie: Pioneering Radioactivity — Listen to Her Story
Maria Sklodowska was born on November 7, 1867, in Warsaw, Poland—then part of the Russian Empire. Her homeland had been partitioned among Russia, Prussia, and Austria, and Polish culture and education were systematically suppressed. This political reality would profoundly shape Maria's life, instilling in her both fierce Polish patriotism and a passionate belief in the power of education.
Maria was the youngest of five children born to teachers Bronislawa and Wladyslaw Sklodowski. Both parents valued education intensely, despite the family's modest circumstances. When Maria was ten, her mother died of tuberculosis, and her father lost his teaching position for pro-Polish sentiments, plunging the family into poverty.
Despite these hardships, Maria excelled academically. She graduated from high school at 15 with a gold medal and dreamed of pursuing higher education. But the University of Warsaw didn't admit women, and her family couldn't afford to send her abroad. So Maria made a pact with her older sister Bronya: Maria would work as a governess to fund Bronya's medical studies in Paris, and then Bronya would support Maria when it was her turn.
For six years, Maria worked as a governess, saving every possible franc while teaching herself mathematics, physics, and chemistry late into the night. She also taught Polish children to read—an act of resistance punishable by deportation to Siberia under Russian rule.
In 1891, at age 24, Maria finally traveled to Paris to study at the Sorbonne. She enrolled as "Marie" Sklodowska, the French version of her name. Living in a tiny, unheated sixth-floor apartment, she survived on bread, chocolate, and tea, often fainting from hunger while studying. But she was finally receiving the education she craved.
Marie graduated first in her physics degree in 1893 and second in mathematics in 1894. She was beginning research on the magnetic properties of steel when her life changed forever: she met Pierre Curie.
Pierre Curie was already an accomplished physicist who had made significant contributions to crystallography and magnetism. When mutual friends introduced him to Marie, he was immediately captivated—not by her appearance (though contemporaries noted her striking grey-green eyes) but by her fierce intellect and dedication to science.
Pierre proposed marriage within months, but Marie initially refused. She intended to return to Poland and contribute to her homeland. Pierre persisted, even offering to move to Poland with her. Eventually, Marie agreed, and they married in a simple ceremony in 1895. Marie wore a dark blue dress that she could later wear in the laboratory—the first hint of her practical approach to life.
Their marriage was extraordinary—a true partnership of equals devoted to both each other and science. They worked side by side, discussed theories during long walks, and inspired each other to greater heights. Pierre later wrote: "It would be a beautiful thing, a thing I dare not hope, if we could spend our life near each other, hypnotized by our dreams: your patriotic dream, our humanitarian dream, and our scientific dream."
In 1896, Henri Becquerel discovered that uranium salts emitted mysterious rays that could expose photographic plates. This phenomenon puzzled scientists. For her doctoral research, Marie decided to investigate these "Becquerel rays."
Working in a cold, damp converted shed at the School of Physics and Chemistry, Marie systematically tested all known elements to see which emitted these rays. She discovered that thorium also emitted them and coined the term "radioactivity" to describe this phenomenon.
But then Marie made an astonishing discovery: pitchblende (uranium ore) was more radioactive than pure uranium. This could only mean one thing—pitchblende contained unknown, highly radioactive elements.
Pierre immediately abandoned his own research to join Marie's work. Together, in that primitive laboratory, they began the monumental task of isolating these new elements. They processed tons of pitchblende, stirring massive vats of ore with iron rods nearly as large as themselves. Marie later wrote: "I came to treat as many as twenty kilograms of matter at a time, which had the effect of filling the shed with great jars full of precipitates and liquids. It was killing work to carry the receivers, to pour off the liquids and to stir, for hours at a stretch, the boiling matter in a smelting basin."
After years of backbreaking work, in 1898 the Curies announced the discovery of two new elements: polonium (named for Marie's beloved Poland) and radium. Extracting pure radium required processing eight tons of pitchblende to obtain just one gram of radium chloride.
The discovery was revolutionary. Radium glowed in the dark, was a million times more radioactive than uranium, and produced heat continuously without any external energy source. It seemed to violate the law of conservation of energy and challenged fundamental assumptions about atomic structure.
In 1903, Marie became the first woman in France to defend a doctoral thesis. That same year, she and Pierre, along with Henri Becquerel, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for their work on radioactivity. Marie was the first woman ever to receive a Nobel Prize.
However, the Nobel committee initially planned to honor only Pierre and Becquerel. Pierre insisted that Marie's contributions were at least equal to his own and threatened to refuse the award unless she was included. Thanks to his intervention, Marie received the recognition she deserved, though the prevailing sexism of the era meant this recognition was grudging.
On April 19, 1906, Marie's life shattered. Pierre, distracted while crossing a rain-slicked Paris street, was struck by a horse-drawn wagon. He died instantly, his skull crushed by the wagon's wheel.
Marie was devastated. She wrote in her diary: "They filled the coffin and put flowers on it... They closed it and I could see nothing more... They say that you are at peace... It is probably true, but it is also a fatal peace which takes you far away from me."
Left alone with two young daughters—Irène, age 9, and Ève, just over a year old—Marie had to decide her future. Many expected her to retreat from public life. Instead, she requested to continue Pierre's work. The University of Paris appointed her to Pierre's professorship, making her the first female professor in the institution's 650-year history.
Marie's first lecture drew a huge crowd curious to see this novelty—a woman professor. She began precisely where Pierre's last lecture had ended, a poignant tribute that moved many to tears.
In the years following Pierre's death, Marie continued her research with renewed intensity. In 1910, she successfully isolated pure metallic radium, proving beyond doubt that it was indeed a new element. In 1911, she was awarded her second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry, for the discovery of radium and polonium. She became the first person—and remains one of only four people—to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences.
Just when Marie reached her greatest professional triumph, scandal struck. In 1911, the French press discovered her affair with physicist Paul Langevin, a married former student of Pierre's. The xenophobic, misogynistic press savaged her, attacking her as a foreign homewrecker who had seduced a French family man.
The scandal was vicious. Mobs gathered outside her home, throwing stones and shouting insults. Marie, seriously ill from the stress, nearly declined to accept her second Nobel Prize. Albert Einstein wrote to her: "If the rabble continues to occupy itself with you, then simply don't read that hogwash, but rather leave it to the reptile for whom it has been fabricated."
Marie persevered, traveled to Stockholm, and accepted her prize with dignity. The scandal eventually faded, though its sting lingered.
When World War I erupted in 1914, Marie immediately sought ways to contribute. She realized that X-ray technology could help locate bullets and shrapnel in wounded soldiers, but few hospitals near the front lines had X-ray equipment.
Marie created mobile X-ray units—"petites Curies" or "Little Curies"—in ordinary vehicles equipped with X-ray equipment and darkroom facilities. She personally drove these units to the front lines, often under bombardment, and trained over 150 women to operate them. Her teenage daughter Irène joined her, operating X-ray equipment and assisting with radiography.
These mobile units examined over one million soldiers during the war, saving countless lives and limbs. Marie refused all honors and compensation for this work, considering it her duty to France, her adopted country.
After the war, many X-ray operators, including Marie and Irène, suffered from radiation exposure. But at the time, the dangers of radiation were poorly understood.
Marie and Pierre had often carried test tubes of radium in their pockets and marveled at the glow. Marie kept a jar of radium salts by her bedside because she loved its fairy-like luminescence. Neither realized they were slowly poisoning themselves.
By the 1920s, Marie's health was declining. Her fingers were burned and scarred from handling radioactive materials. She developed cataracts that eventually required multiple surgeries. She suffered from chronic fatigue, dizziness, and low-grade fevers.
In 1934, at age 66, Marie died of aplastic anemia, almost certainly caused by prolonged radiation exposure. Even her cookbook and notebooks remain too radioactive to handle safely and are stored in lead-lined boxes.
Marie Curie's contributions to science cannot be overstated:
Her daughter Irène Joliot-Curie won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 for discovering artificial radioactivity. Marie and Irène remain the only mother-daughter pair to win Nobel Prizes, and the Curie family has won five Nobel Prizes total—more than any other family in history.
In 1995, Marie Curie became the first woman to be entombed on her own merits in the Panthéon in Paris, France's highest honor. During the ceremony, President François Mitterrand said: "By transferring the ashes of Marie Curie... France not only performs an act of remembrance, but affirms a faith in science, in research, and, inseparably from those things, a faith in progress and the future."
Marie Curie's story resonates because it transcends science. She embodied:
Her famous quotes continue to inspire:
Marie Curie spent her life studying elements that glow in the dark, emit mysterious rays, and transform the world around them. She herself was such an element—a force of nature that illuminated the darkness of ignorance, emitted the powerful rays of scientific discovery, and transformed not just science but society's understanding of what women could achieve.
She paid the ultimate price for her discoveries, her body literally consumed by the radioactive materials she devoted her life to studying. But her legacy glows on, inspiring millions to pursue science, to persist despite obstacles, to value knowledge over comfort, and to believe that one person with sufficient courage and brilliance can truly change the world.
Marie Curie didn't just pioneer radioactivity—she embodied it. And like the radium she discovered, her influence continues to emit powerful effects that reach across time, inspiring new generations to look into the unknown and ask: What might we discover if we're brave enough to search?
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