Marie Curie - Wonderful Woman No. 42

Marie Curie - 1867-1934
Polish-French Chemist & Physicist

Added to the album by a wonderful woman called Jules

There are other women in this album who have saved lives in one way or another, I wonder though that any other woman throughout history has been responsible for saving the number of lives Marie Curie can lay claim to.

Marie conquered so much in order to achieve her ambitions and eventually make her discoveries; overcoming poverty, the struggles of war and lack of national independence in her native Poland and, of course, being a woman in the male dominated world of science. While her life's work is wonderful and important, I also think these facts should be noted and further reasons to find her inspirational.

Marie is credited with early theories of radioactivity - the word itself being first used my Marie and her husband and experimental collaborator, Pierre. She theorised and experimented and proved a great many of her theories. She discovered two elements; Polonium and Radium.

Polonium, named after her place of birth - Poland, is a rare element occurring in Uranium ores and is extremely radioactive. It is used as Neutron Source, which can have a wide range of uses in industry, medicine, engineering and so on.

Radium, like Polonium, is also highly radioactive. It is also a Neutron Source with a range of uses. Radium is used to produce Radon Gas, which has been a treatment for many cancers since the 1920s.

Rather unselfishly, Marie decided against patenting her method of Radium isolation as she felt this would not be in the interest of scientific development. In later life, she would establish a number of radioactivity research laboratories throughout Europe.

Marie pushed for the use of mobile x-ray units during the first World War, which treated wounded soldiers. These became known as Petites Curies (Little Curies) in her honour. Marie herself is said to have driven the radiography units to the front-line. The Red Cross made her head of its radiological service and she held training courses for medics.

Marie was the first person to receive Nobel Prizes for two separate sciences, Physics and Chemistry, indeed she was the first woman to win at all and remains the only woman to have won in two fields. She has had a great many institutes and research facilities named after her and her name remains in the prominence of medical science, specifically in the treatment of cancer.

I expect that almost all of us have been affected by cancer at some point in our lives be that personally or watching the suffering of a family member, neighbour or friend. For the development of treatment, we all owe a great deal to this wonderful woman, a true inspiration.

Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.
Marie Curie