Marie Curie was the total oppposite of the stereotypical 'dumb blonde' .
She was born in Poland on 7th November 1887 to a fairly poor family. After leaving school , she worked for several years as a governess to support her sister's medical training. Later this sister , Bronia, helped Marie [aka Marya] to move to Paris to study science.
In Paris, Marie was able to study for physics and maths degrees and then take a doctorate in Physics - unheard of for a woman at that time.
She researched radioactivity and was awarded the Nobel prize for Physics jointly with her husband Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel . Later she won the Nobel prize for chemistry for her work on radium .
She was an innovator as well as a scientist and quickly saw the importance of x-rays in visualising broken bones and bullets during World War 1 , leading to a fleet of X-ray vans and a large team of trained female technicians which were sent to army field hospitals.
She eventually died on the 4th July 1934 of aplastic anaemia caused by her long career of working with radioactivy with limited protection.
btw when i first uploaded the banner to the blog template , it seemed i'd had a dyslexic moment and had typed the wrong date for Marie Curie's death on the banner -its corrected now on the template and within the blog post.Technorati Tags:
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1 comment:
Thank you for honouring such a brilliant and marvellous woman. Two Nobel Prizes - has there ever been the like!? What a pity that so many modern medical marvels have come to common use through their success in war.
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