Sanity
Josiah Martin
Senior Inquiry 3rd hour
March 9, 2016
Sanity
Marie Curie
(1867-1934)
The Basics
Marie Curie was born in Warsaw in the November of 1867. Throughout her career, Curie was recognized for her brilliant work by receiving various honors, including honorary degrees, memberships, and Nobel Prizes (Nobelprize.org). According to Nobelprize.org, her first Nobel prize was actually just half of one which she shared with her husband, Pierre Curie; the other half would go to a scientist who shared their research. So in 1903, the Curies received the Nobel Prize for Physics for their research on spontaneous radiation. Nobelprize.org also states that she received a second Nobel Prize in Chemistry. By separating radium from radioactive substances, she was able to study the properties of the radium and characterize it (Nobelprize.org). While in her studies of separating radium, Curie had coined the term “radioactivity," and it has been used a great deal since then in varying situations (The Christian Science Monitor).
According to Nobelprize.org, Marie Curie held a few positions of authority in the science field as well. It states that she took over as Head of the Physics Laboratory in Sorbonne, France when her husband died in 1906, and also filled his spot as Professor of General Physics in the Faculty of Sciences.
Impact on the World Today
Marie Curie has given forth many contributions to science that are extremely important today. For example, Curie’s work with radium led to the possibility of radiation therapy for cancers (Michigan State University). According to BBC, her research was also extremely important in x-ray technology, in which she actually helped operate in ambulances throughout the first World War. Curie's work has benefitted the medical field greatly, leading to therapy for cancers and x-ray technology. Ironically, her discoveries in radioactivity also led to future advances for weapons of mass destruction (Michigan State University).
Although her scientific contributions are pretty important and vital in some fields, Marie Curie has impacted the world today more than just scientifically. She helped develop the respect for women in the scientific community, being a woman that accomplished many “firsts” in the world of science. According to Chris Gaylord for The Christian Science Monitor, she was the first woman to ever win a Nobel Prize, and the first person to win two. Gaylord also states that she was the first person to win a Nobel Prize in two different fields of study, and that has only been repeated by one other person, Linus Pauling. Having achieved so many accomplishments as the "first woman", she is an inspirational figure in science for women around the world.
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