Marie Curie
The Curies in the laboratory in 1896.
Who was she? The Ironies in her life : Strange
facts What were her other names?
Why should I know about Marie Curie?
TIMELINE CHILDHOOD & FAMILY YOUTH AND ADULTHOOD
SHE OVERCAME THE HARD CONDITIONS OF
HER LIFE HER
STRENGTHS
MARIE'S HOMELAND: POLAND References
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Marie
Curie is one of the most famous women scientists in the world. She may even be the most famous!
Whenever
the worlds of women and science are put together, Marie Curie springs
automatically to mind. Seeing her opening up new paths, many women became
scientists.
The Ironies in
her life : Strange facts
“To be nobody-but-yourself -- in a world which is
doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else -- means to fight the
hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.”
She became an icon and a
role-model for other women to follow, someone who succeeded--despite many
difficulties--in imposing herself on the world of science. She always opened
her lab to competent women, and encouraged them to follow scientific careers.
However, Curie rarely spoke out about her feminist views and often refused to
take part in public debates that had nothing to do with science.
With great determination
and hard work, she managed to isolate minute quantities of radium from the raw
material that she had: pitchblende. Few people could do
what she did. In spite of that, she was always modest about her achievements and
emphasized that they belonged to science, not to her.
Yet as Mollie Keller put
it in her biography of Curie, "this tiny woman with her
decigram of radium turned the world upside down, forever changing the way we
look at, understand, and use our environment."
Whenever Marie Curie was
asked in her later years when she was going to write her autobiography, she
responded
, "[My
life] is such an uneventful, simple little story. I was born in
It is ironic that this
woman of such singular caliber, who established one of the world's greatest
scientific laboratories at the Radium Institute in
Marya Sklodowska : official name at birth
Manya nickname
Marie Sklodowska when she reached Paris
Marie (Sklodowska) Curie, Maria Sklodowska Curie, Mrs. Pierre Curie: After
her marriage to Pierre Curie
Marie Curie: most famous
name
Why should I
know about Marie Curie?
Top ten reasons:
1.