Marie Curie is remembered today for her pioneering work on radioactivity, which earned her not only two Nobel Prizes but also the title “mother of modern physics”.
Curie was not only the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, but also the only woman to receive awards in two different fields.
In 1896, French physicist Henri Becquerel discovered that uranium salts emit rays similar to X-rays in their ability to pass through objects.
This discovery inspired Marie Curie to explore Becquerel’s findings as part of her research thesis. She and her husband, Pierre Curie, went on to discover radium and polonium, two new radioactive elements, in 1898.
Then, in 1911, Curie received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for isolating pure radium.
She will continue to study the chemistry of radioactive substances as well as their connection to medicine.
The radiation ended the life of the woman scientist
Marie Curie died on July 4, 1934, of aplastic anemia caused by radiation.
When she died, her body was so radioactive that she had to be buried in a lead-lined coffin. However, no one knew this until 1995, when the coffin was exhumed.
At the time, the French authorities wanted to move the Curies to the national mausoleum, the Panthéon, in honor of their contributions to science.
Officials responsible for the exhumation contacted the French radiation protection agency, expressing concerns about residual radiation and asking for assistance to protect the cemetery workers.
Further examination of Marie Curie’s body revealed that it remained remarkably well preserved and only small levels of alpha and beta contamination were detected.
This, according to the Journal of the British Society for the History of Radiology, was possible because Curie took steps to limit her exposure to radiation.
Still, after 100 years, many of her possessions, including her furniture, books, clothes and lab notes, remain highly radioactive.
The latter are stored in lead-lined boxes at the Bibliothèque National de France in Paris.
