Marie Curie and Radioactivity

Introduction

The accomplishments Marie Curie has achieved throughout her lifetime are truly incredible. She has undoubtedly changed science forever with the help of her husband Pierre Curie and other fellow scientists. Her work with radioactivity has also helped with technology today, such as x-rays and methods to help with the treatment of cancer. Although she had to put up with the inconveniences of a miniature laboratory and the problem of sexual discrimination, Marie Curie defied the odds and proved everyone wrong by her successes and life changing discoveries.

Marie Sklodowska Curie was a legend in the science world as the woman who helped discover the science of radioactivity. Born to Bronislwa and Vladislav Sklodowski in Warsaw, Poland on November 7, 1867, Marie was in the midst of a struggle Poland was having with Russia, which would lead to some roadblocks in her future aspirations to be a scientist. (Ashburn)

At the age of eight her oldest sister died of typhus and three years later her mother died of an ongoing fight with tuberculosis. With great effort, Vladislav helped his family move on from these tragic losses and keep his family together in such difficult times. He continuously nurtured his children with classic literature and end exposed them to scientific apparatuses and at an early age sparking a premature interest within Marie. ("Marie Curie-Biography")

Marie was very intelligent in school and did not let her personal losses impede her academic success. She received a gold medal at her high school graduation in 1883 when she was only fifteen years old. After high school she attended Floating University, an illegal night school that got its name because each class had to be in a different location to avoid being caught. This was the only way to further her education in Poland since it was against the law for women to go to college during that time. Eventually Marie decided the only way to further her career was to movie to attend college elsewhere. She was accepted at the Sorbonne in 1891 in Paris, France. There she finished first in her master's degree physics course in 1893 and the following year she finished second in math.(Ashburn)

After her schooling Marie was in search of a lab partner, and through a mutual friend Marie met her future husband and partner in changing the course of science, Pierre Curie. The two shared common ideas and a passion for science and eventually their mutual friendship blossomed into love and in 1895 the two science masterminds married in Sceaux, France in a simple civil ceremony. (Nilsson)

On December 1895, German physicist Wilhelm Roentgen discovered a kind of ray that could travel through solid wood or flesh and yield photographs of living peoples bones. He called these mysterious rays X-rays with the x standing for unknown. A few months later, French physicist Henri Becquerel accidentally discovered that these uranium compounds emitted rays, even if left in the dark. Many in the science community though ignored Becquerel's uranium rays except for one that ...