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11 Marie Curie Facts for Kids

navajocodetalkersadmin on January 6, 2015 - 4:00 pm in Fun Facts for Kids

Marie Curie played a very important role in learning more about radioactivity, chemistry, and physics. Her work helped to pave the way for discoveries like X-rays, chemotherapy, and the whole medical field of radiology. Most see Curie as one of the most important female scientists to have ever lived. To learn more about this very important female scientific figure, read on.

1. Marie was actually born with the first name of Maria “Manya” Sklodowska in Warsaw, Poland. Her birthday was November 7th, 1867. Her parents were both educators.

2. A few years high school, Marie moved from Poland to France to study at the University in Paris known as the Sorbonne because girls, during this time, were not allowed to go to University in Poland. Before she could move to France to go to school, however, Marie had to help her older sister, Bronya, make her way through University in France, as well.

3. In 1891, Manya changed her name to a more French sounding one, Marie, to better fit in in her new home.

4. Four years later, Marie would marry another scientist, Pierre Curie. They often worked in their lab together. Their daughter, Irene Curie, would also grow up to be an important scientist.

5. To earn her Ph.D. degree in physics, Marie studied the element uranium, a newly discovered element at the time.

6. Both the elements of polonium (named after Marie’s homeland of Poland) and radium were discovered by Marie and Pierre.

7. The Curies coined the term radioactivity to be a way to describe any element that seemed to emit strong rays of energy.

8. Marie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize. She actually one two in her lifetime for her work, both in Physics and Chemistry. She was also the first person to ever be awarded the price twice.

9. Through her work with x-rays, Marie realized that doctors could use them to better understand what was wrong with people from the inside, out. X-rays were particularly helpful to soldiers in WW I.

10. Another first for women thanks to Marie Curie: she was the first female to ever be named a Professor of Physics at the Sorbonne in France.

11. Curie died after getting leukemia because of the amount of radiation she exposed herself to over her lifetime. Cancer research is still carried out in her name thanks to several institutes (Curie Institutes) she founded during her lifetime.

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