Page 229 - Inventions - A Visual Encyclopedia (DK - Smithsonian)

Marie Curie 84 Po which polonium and
Uranium ore, from
(209)
radium are extracted
POLONIUM

One of the great scientists of her age, the Polish-French 88 (226)
physicist Marie Curie was a pioneer in the study Ra
RADIUM
of radioactivity—the stream of energetic particles
produced when unstable atoms break up. Her work NEW ELEMENTS
When Curie arrived in Paris, scientists
improved our understanding of radioactivity, leading had recently discovered that certain
to the treatment of cancers with radiation. For her elements, such as uranium, were
radioactive. Working with her husband,
discoveries of two radioactive elements, she became the scientist Pierre Curie, and alone, IN GOOD HEALTH
the first person to be awarded two Nobel Prizes. she discovered two more radioactive
elements, polonium and radium, in 1898.

Marie Curie’s notebooks
A WOMAN IN A are still highly radioactive
MAN’S WORLD TREATING CANCER
In late 19th-century Europe, Curie’s discoveries led
women were largely barred from to the development of
the scientific world. In Curie’s radiotherapy—a method
home country of Poland, women of treating cancer with
couldn’t even attend college, high bursts of radiation.
forcing her to study in secret. Unfortunately, the dangers
Her career took off when she of radiation were not well
moved to Paris, France, where understood at the time and
she gained degrees in both physics Curie is believed to have
and chemistry. Curie’s extraordinary died from a bone disease
achievements paved the way for caused by long-term
other female scientists. exposure to radiation.

LITTLE CURIES
In World War I, Curie arranged for 20 trucks to be
equipped with X-ray machines, which could be used
to scan wounded soldiers for bullets and broken
bones. She even helped to drive the trucks to the
war zone herself. By the end of the war, these trucks,
known as “Little Curies” (left), had examined more
than a million soldiers.

1906 1910 1934 1995

After Pierre’s death in a street Marie wins her second Nobel She dies at the age of 66, The remains of Pierre and
accident, Marie takes over his Prize in Chemistry. She is the following a long period Marie are moved to the
job as professor at Sorbonne only woman to have won two of illness believed to have Panthéon in Paris, where
University, becoming the first Nobel Prizes, and the only person been caused by prolonged the most distinguished
woman to hold such a position. to have won for different sciences. exposure to radiation. French citizens are buried.

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