Marie Curie Biography

Annaliese Baron

Mr. Correa

Research Paper

May 25, 2018

 Marie Curie changed the scientific community by discovering the elements Polonium and

Radium, confirming and proving their existence, creating the word radioactivity by working off Henri

Becquerel’s discovery that minerals that contain uranium gave off rays, helping create and advance x-ray

technology, and providing multiple mobile x-rays throughout the World War. She published two books

titled Recherches sur les Substances Radioactives (Research on Radioactive Substances), La Raidologie

et la Guerre (Radiology in War) writing about her discoveries. Marie left her old life in Poland and

moved to France, forever impacting the scientific world with her many discoveries.

Marie Curie was born Maria Sklodowska to Bronislawa and Wladyslaw Sklodowski on

November 7, 1867, though to her family, she was known as Manya. She was the youngest of five, with

her eldest sibling Zofia, born in 1862, Józef, born in 1863, Bronislawa, born in 1865, and Helena, born in

1866. She was born in Warsaw, Poland, which during that time had been divided by the Russians,

Austrians, and Prussians. Marie and her family lived specifically in Russian-Poland. Because of this, it

was thought to be hard for Marie and her family to live there because if anyone tried to rebel against the

Russians, they were executed, or exiled. School teachers, such as Marie’s parents, had to teach Russian

history, folktales and literature. They were forced to teach in Russian instead of Polish.

“Religious as a child, Curie rejected her faith after her sister did of typhus (a severe fever) in

1876. Two years later she lost her mother to tuberculosis, a terrible disease that attacks the lungs and

bones.”(Marie Curie Bio.) She was still able to graduate high school despite her mother and her eldest

sister Zofia dying/ She completed her secondary education in 1883 at the Russian Lycée (high school),

gaining a gold medal and the highest honors at the age of 15. Since she couldn’t attend any universities in

Poland, she took her father’s suggestion, and spent a year in the country-side with a couple of friends.

Another possible reason why her father sent her to the country side was after graduating, Marie “suffered

from a nervous illness, which left her feeling too tired to do anything. It may have been what modern

doctors call depression.” (Marie Curie, Her story in Brief). Returning to Warsaw the next year, she started
earning money to help assist her older sister Bronislawa financially while she was at school, with the

agreement that Bronislawa would do the same in return when Marie got in university.

She took up jobs doing private tutoring, trying to earn enough money to make it to France.

During this time is when Marie helped out by teaching and reading in Polish at the “Floating University”

or the “Free University”, which was where “a group of young men and women who tried to quench their

thirst for knowledge in secret sessions,” (Marie Curie Bio.). She also attended classes there with her older

sister Bronya (Bronislawa’s nickname) at night, each time, the location of the classes changed to avoid

being found out by the Russian Czar’s police. To continue earning and saving money up for university,

Marie took up a job as a governess (private educator) to a family in Szczuki, Poland in early 1886. Her

employer was the owner of a beet-sugar factory, and her instructions were to teach his children. Marie

risked punishment by the Russian authorities when she taught the peasant workers’ children how to read

as well. Her employer found out, but didn’t object to her doing so. In 1889, she returned to Warsaw where

she continued to work as a tutor and a governess. Secretly, however, on Sundays and on weekday nights,

she studied at a “Museum” where she did a chemistry course. The museum she studied at was a museum

only in name, as it was secretly an illegal lab made to train Polish scientists.

In 1891, when she was around 24, Curie left Poland to live with her sister Bronislawa in Paris.

There, Marie enrolled at the Sorbonne as a physics major. She barely had enough money to enroll in the

Sorbonne, so, with her little money, she survived on buttered bread and tea while determined to immerse

herself in her studies. Because of her poor diet, she sometimes suffered health problems because of her

lack of nutrition. Marie stayed in a cheap rental of a Parisian attic. During the cold winter, she had to wear

all of her clothes at once to feel warm due to the lack of heat in the attic. She earned her master’s degree

in physics in 1893, and worked on getting one in math the following year. In 1894, Marie was searching

“for a laboratory where she could work on her research project, the measurement of the magnetic

properties of various steel alloys (metal mixtures). Acting upon a suggestion, she visited Pierre Curie at

the School of Physics and Chemistry at the University of Paris” (Marie Curie Bio.). Count Józef Wierusz-
Kowalski, someone who had known Marie for a while, and acted as her sponsor to get her through her

studies in Warsaw, is the one who introduced Marie to Pierre, and is likely the one who made the

suggestion in the first place. Although Pierre’s lab equipment and facilities weren’t the best despite his

title of Laboratory Chief at the Paris Municipal School of Industrial Physics.

Pierre proposed to Marie in 1895, but Marie declined at first, saying that she planned to return to

Poland after she completed her studies. But, when she was rejected a place at Krawków University in

Poland, she was convinced by Pierre to return to Paris, where she then accepted his proposal. On July 26,

1895, Marie Sklodowska became Marie Curie when she married Pierre in Sceaux. Instead of wearing a

traditional white gown for her wedding dress, Marie wore a dark blue dress, saying: “I have no dress

except the one I wear every day. If you are going to be kind enough to give me one, please let it be

practical and dark so that I can put it on afterwards to go to the laboratory.” The newlywed Curies took a

bicycle tour around the countryside of France. They had two children together during the eleven years

they were married; Irène, born on September 12, 1897, and Ève Curie, born on December 6, 1904. Irène

would grow up to be Irène Joliot-Curie, and follow in her parents footsteps, becoming a scientist with her

husband Frédéric Joliot-Curie.

She and Pierre discovered the element Polonium in July 1898, naming it after Marie’s homeland.

A few months later, in December of 1898, the Curies discovered another element: Radium, naming it

after the Latin word ray. The Curies had to prove to other scientists that their elements did, in fact, exist.

While doing their work, Pierre “proved that radium could damage living flesh. That opened a new way to

treat cancer and other ailments,” (Marie Curie, Her Story in Brief).

Marie completed her doctoral thesis in 1903, being the first woman to ever do it in France. The

Curies also accepted a Nobel Prize for their work in physics, with Marie, once again, being the first

woman to do such a thing. Marie traveled to Sweden in 1905 to accept the Nobel Prize and give a speech,

as Pierre was too ill to join her. On April 19, 1906, tragedy struck the Curie family. Pierre Curie was
crossing the street Rue Dauphine to go to the library one rainy day, when he slipped, falling in front of a

horse-drawn carriage carrying six-tons of uniforms. He was killed instantly when the carriage wheels ran

over his head. While Marie mourned, she still attempted to continue working, thinking that it’s what

Pierre would’ve done. During this time, Marie confirmed that radium was an element -since some

scientists had doubts, and thought it to be only a compound-, and she established “a scientific institution

worthy of Pierre’s memory,” (Marie Curie, Her Story in Brief).

In 1911, Marie was refused the ability to become a member in the French Academy of Science.

Later, more bad news came to light: Marie’s affair with Paul Langevin, a former student of Pierre’s and a

fellow phycisist, became the focus of the public eye. The news accused her of ‘ruining a good French

marriage’ (there was xenophobia in French upper classes). Because of this, the people of Sweden were

reluctant to let Marie come to Sweden to accept her Nobel Prize for discovering polonium and radium, as

she would have to shake the King’s hand.

The August of 1914, Germany invaded France. Curie knew that doctors could use x-rays to save

soldiers’ lives, but the problem was getting the x-rays to the doctors on the field. “Curie talked wealthy

people into donating their cars, and assembled a fleet of 20 mobile x-ray stations as well as 200 stationary

stations,” (Marie Curie, Her Story in Brief). People started calling these stations ‘petites Curies’ (little

Curies). Irène, Marie’s daughter, helped man the stations during the war. After the war ended in 1918,

Marie was awarded a gram of radium, expensive lab equipment, and cash by President Harding.

After 66 years of living, on July 4, 1934, Marie Curie died in Sancellemoz (a sanatorium, placed

there perhaps to treat her depression) from aplastic amenia, a blood disease due to her many years of

exposure to radiation. She was buried next to Pierre, and in 1995, her and Pierre’s remains were

transferred to the Paris Panthéon. “The president of France declared that the transfer demonstrated the

nation’s respect for all those, like the Curies,” (Marie Curie, Her Story in Brief).
 The science community as we know it today, benefited greatly from the work of Madam Curie,

whose various discoveries advanced our understanding of radioactivity, despite the many obstacles she

faced. Much of what we know today of Curie’s labors and accomplishments is due to a biography Ève

Curie wrote while staying at her mother’s side even while Marie was on her deathbed.
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