The discovery of radium changed medicine forever: X-rays, radiation treatment for cancer, and our overall understanding of the atom can all be traced to Marie Curie, who dedicated her life to understanding the mysterious element.

Born in Poland, Curie (1867–1934), née Maria Sklodowska, moved to Paris to study math and physics at the Sorbonne Institute, where she met and shared laboratory space with her future husband, Pierre Curie (1859–1906). In 1897, she began researching spontaneous radiation emitted by uranium compounds, on which the French scientist Henri Becquerel (1852–1908) had recently reported. Together, Marie and Pierre discovered that the mineral pitchblende had the same emission characteristics—a quality she called “radioactive.” When they separated out the chemical components of pitchblende, the pair discovered two previously unknown elements: polonium (named for Marie’s native country) and radium.

Up to this time, the atom was considered the smallest particle in matter. But the radiation that the Curies observed suggested that the atom was indeed divisible into smaller components, opening the door to a whole new field of physics. The couple, along with Becquerel, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903.

The Curies were unable to accept their award for 2 years, however, because of a mysterious illness that both scientists had begun to suffer from: They were frequently tired, the skin of their fingers always cracked, and they were perpetually sick. They didn’t realize—or perhaps didn’t want to admit—that their health was being affected by the glowing radiation given off by their laboratory samples.

In 1906, Pierre was struck and killed while crossing the street, leaving Marie with their two young daughters. Marie succeeded Pierre as professor, becoming the first woman to teach at the Sorbonne, and she received a second Nobel Prize in 1911. She volunteered for France during World War I, building portable x-ray machines for use in the trenches. She also distributed radium to kill infections in wounded soldiers. (The element’s toxic side effects were realized only in the 1930s, at which point safer substitutes such as cobalt-60 were developed.) Afterward, Curie traveled throughout Europe and the United States, where she became quite a celebrity. She died at 67, of leukemia—probably as a result of her long exposure to radiation.

ADDITIONAL FACTS

  1. For many years Marie’s daughter Irène Joliot-Curie (1897–1956) and her husband—also Nobel Prize winners (in chemistry, for advances in nuclear research)—operated the Radium Institute, now renamed the Curie Institute.
  2. The curie, a measure of radioactivity, is named for Marie Curie.
  3. In 1921, US president Warren G. Harding (1865–1923) presented Marie Curie with 1 gram of radium on behalf of all women of America, in recognition of her service to science. In 1929, President Herbert Hoover (1874–1964) presented her with $50,000, donated by American friends of science, to purchase radium for use in her laboratory in her native Warsaw.