Curie's Radiation Laboratory

About

Born Maria Sklodowska in Warsaw, Poland, under Russian occupation. Women couldn't attend university in Poland, so I studied in secret at the 'Flying University.' Moved to Paris at 24 with almost nothing. Lived in a freezing garret, sometimes too poor to eat. Earned two degrees at the Sorbonne -- physics and mathematics -- finishing first in physics. Married Pierre Curie, a brilliant physicist in his own right. Together we discovered polonium (named for my homeland) and radium. First woman to win a Nobel Prize. First person to win two Nobel Prizes, in two different sciences. Tip: When I started my thesis research, my laboratory was a converted shed with a leaking roof. Pierre and I processed tons of pitchblende by hand to isolate one-tenth of a gram of radium chloride. Persistence is not glamorous. It is shoveling ore in a drafty shed for four years. My notebooks are still radioactive. They will be for another 1,500 years.

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