MARIE CURIE

The Woman Who Changed The

Course Of Science

Sharu Jacob
B.Ed, Physical Science
Mangalam College of Education
 Index
Introduction
Family and childhood
Education
Pierre Curie
Marie Curies research
Nobel prize in physics and chemistry
Curiosities
 Introduction
Marie Curie was born on 7th November, 1867 in
Warsow, capital of Poland as Maria Salomea
Sklodowski
She studied physical at the Sorbonne, in Paris
She is famous for her work on radioactivity
She discovered Radium and Polonium
She died in 1934 from Leukemia, in Paris
 Family
Marie Curie was the fifth and youngest child of well
known teachers Wladyslaw Sklodowski (physics and
maths teacher) and Bronislawa Boguska
Siblings : Josef, Zosia, Bronia, Helena
 Education

When she was ten years old, Maria began attending the
boarding school of J. Sikorska, from which she
graduated on 12 June 1883 with a gold medal
Unable to enroll in a regular institution of higher
education because she was a woman, she and her sister
Bronisawa became involved with the clandestine Flying
University, a Polish patriotic institution of higher
learning that admitted women students
 She wanted to study at Storbonne University
To prepare for Storbonne she took a job as a governess
Finally In late 1891, she left Poland for France, where
she studied of physics, chemistry, and mathematics
Marie had begun her scientific career in Paris with an
investigation of the magnetic properties of various
steels, commissioned by the society for the
encouragement of national industry
Pierre Curie
In Paris, Marie met a young
physicist, Pierre Curie

Their mutual passion for science

brought them increasingly closer
and they began to develop feelings
for one another

They got married on 26th July

1895 in the south of Paris
They had two daughters, Irene and Eve
Pierre Curie died run over by a horse-
drawn wagon in 1906
They had two daughters,
Irene and Eve

Pierre Curie died run

over by a horse-drawn
wagon in 1906
Professor at Sorbonne
After Pierre died, Marie Curie was
appointed to take over the
professorship at Sorbonne and to
lecture in Pierres place. Marie
remembered a statement that Pierre
once said when he was ill:
Whatever happens, even if you feel
like a body that is deprived of its
soul, it is our duty to continue the
work, despite everything!
 Marie Curies research
Marie and Pierre began their pioneering work with
invisible rays given off by Uranium- a new
phenomenon which has recently been discovered by
professor Henri Bequerel
They worked in a deserted local, in terrible conditions
 Marie noticed that samples of a mineral called
Pitchblende, which contains Uranium ore was a great
deal more radioactive than the pure element Uranium
She concluded that the very large readings she was
getting could not be caused by Uranium alone, there
was something else in Pitchblende
Marie was convinced she had found a new chemical
element- other scientists doubted her results
The Curies set about working to search for the
unknown element
Eventually, in July 1898, they extracted a black
powder 330 times more radioactive than Uranium,
which they called Polonium
Polonium was a new chemical element with atomic
number 84
 On further investigation, the Curies found that the
liquid left behind after they had extracted Polonium
was still extremely radioactive.
They realized that Pitchblende contained another new
element, far more radioactive than Polonium, but
present in even smaller quantities
In 1898, the Curies published strong evidence
supporting the existence of a new element which they
called Radium
 Nobel Prize in Physics
In 1903, the Curies and Henri Bequerel received the
Nobel Prize in Physics for their combined research and
discoveries on radioactivity
 Nobel Prize in Chemistry
The Swedish Nobel committee announced Marie Curie
her second Nobel Prize in 1911, this time in Chemistry
for creating a means of measuring radioactivity
 Curiosities
Marie and Pierrie passed the summer
of the wedding travelling France by
bike

During World War 1, Marie with her

daughter Irene helped the soldiers with
mobile X-ray units which located
fractures, bullets and shrapnel in their
body
 Irene Curie won the Nobel Prize
in Chemistry with her husband,
Fred Joliot

Marie Curies face was in the

notes of 20 zloty in Poland

There is a film about Marie Curie

by Mervyn Leroy (1943)
 Marie Curies many firsts:
The first woman with degree in Physics
The first woman to obtain a Nobel Prize
The first woman to obtain a chair at the Sorbonne
The first scientist to obtain two Nobel Prizes
The first woman that has been laid to rest under the
famous dome of the Pantheon in Paris for her own
merits