Marie Curie, also known as ‘Madame Curie’, revolutionized history with her great discoveries in the area of physics and chemistry. Her passion for her research not only made her the foremost scientist of her day, but established her as the first woman to win the Nobel Prize Y the only one to get it twice.
Due to the macho ideology that existed at that time, she had to travel to France to study Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics at the University of Paris. Today, having been the pioneer in the field of radioactivity, the world knows her as the mother of modern physicsbut what is the story behind the success of Madame Curie?
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Marie Curie discovered her passion for research thanks to the encouragement of her parents. Photo: National Geographic
Who was Marie Curie?
Daughter of a Physics teacher and a piano teacher, Maria Salomea Skłodowska He was born on November 7, 1867 in the city of Warsaw, Poland. Since she was a child, her parents instilled in her a love for knowledge and research.
At the age of 15, because higher education was only accessible to men, Marie Curie began her academic training in the so-called Floating University, a clandestine institution in which Polish professors sought to teach quality classes to young people. Years later, thanks to the help of his older sister, she entered the University of Paris to study Physics and Chemistry.
After graduating in Physics, ‘Madame Curie’ began, in 1894, her first scientific research on the magnetic properties of steels. That same year she met Piere Curie, a French physicist who would become her husband and with whom she would devote her life to science.
Marie Curie made great contributions to science for her research in the field of radioactivity. Photo: Infobae
The first woman to receive the Nobel Prize
In 1903, Marie Curie; her husband, Pierre Curie; and French physicist Henri Becquerel were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for the extraordinary services rendered in their joint research on radiation phenomena. She would thus become the first woman to receive this recognition.
However, this would not be the only one. In 1911 she became a creditor, alone, of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the discovery of the elements radium and polonium, the isolation of the former, and the study of the nature or compounds thereof. In this way, she is, to date, the only woman to receive two prizes in this category.
Marie Curie brought great advances to science thanks to her research in the field of radioactivity. Photo: National Geographic
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What were the main scientific discoveries of Marie Curie?
Marie Curie is credited with discovery of two chemical elements: radium and polonium. This thanks to his investigation of other radioactive substances.
What motivated Marie Curie to study radioactivity?
After receiving her Bachelor’s degree in Physics, Marie Curie set out to pursue a Ph.D. in science, something no woman had achieved up to that point. To do this, she had to choose a thesis topic that would serve as a research point.
Marie Curie was inspired by the discovery of ‘X-rays’ and the investigations of the physicist Becquerel. Photo: BBC
His inspiration would come, a few months later, with two great events that arose at that time: the discovery of x-rays by Wilhelm Röntgen and Henry Becquerel’s observation that minerals containing uranium emitted rays, whose nature was unknown.
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Marie Curie, the ‘mother of modern physics’: who was she and what were her contributions to humanity?