“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more so that we may fear less”. Maria Curie was a chemist, physicist and a pioneer in the study of radiation. She and her husband, Pierre, discovered the elements radium and polonium. They were both awarded the Nobel prize in1903, and Marie received another on for chemistry in 1911. Radioactivity is very dangerous. Although Marie did not know that because she was the one who discovered it. She died in 1934 because of blood disease.
Maria Salomea Sklodowski was born in Warsaw, Poland, on November 7th, 1867. She was the youngest of five children, a brother and three older sisters. Both of Maria’s parents were educators and insisted on the girls being educated just like their son. Back then, women weren’t really supposed to be educated. Although Maria graduated from high school at age 15. Her and her sister both wished that they could…show more content… She supported the use of portable X-ray machines in the field, and these medical vehicles earned the nickname “little curies”. After the war Marie used her celebrity to advance her research. She traveled the united states twice in 1921 and in 1929 to raise funds to buy radium and to establish a radium research institute in Warsaw.
In 1921, U.S president Warren G. Harding received her at the White House to present her with the one gram of radium collected in the United States. Before the meeting, she was embarrassed that she had no French official distinction to wear in public, the government offered her a Legion of Honor reward, but she refused. A League of Honor reward is a medal for the highest French order of merit for military and civil merits. In 1920 she became a fellow of the French Academy of Medicine. She also travelled to other countries, appearing publicly to give lectures to people in Belgium, Brazil, Spain, and
