Madame Marie Curie

&
The Science of Radioactivity

By Claire Goelst

Early Life
Born on November 7,
1867 in Warsaw,
Poland
Given name was
Marya Sklodowska,
but her family and
friends called her
Little Manya

Early Life cont.

Her father was a
professor of math
and physics
Her mother was a
pianist, singer, and
teacher
Her mother died of
tuberculosis when
Marya was 11

Schooling
Graduated high
school when she
was 15
In 1891 she
enrolled at the
Sorbonne in
Paris as Marie
and graduated in
1893

Pierre

She married Pierre Curie in July 1895

Thesis Work
She decided that
her thesis for her
doctorate would
be on Henri
Becquerels
mysterious xrays that are
given off by
uranium

Work with Uranium

Discovered that if you have a

certain amount of uranium, then
you get a certain amount of ray
intensity, no matter what you did
to the material

Uranium Continued
Marie discovered
that there was
something going on
inside the atom that
created the rays, she
named this effect
radioactivity

Radioactivity
She discovered
that the only
known elements
that were
radioactive were
uranium and
thorium

Polonium
Pierre stopped his
work on crystals to
work with Marie
Marie continued
her work, but with
a different
substance,
pitchblende

Polonium Cont.
In July 1898 they
extracted a new
element that was even
more radioactive than
uranium
They called this
new substance
polonium in honor of
Maries homeland

Radium
In January of
1899 another new
element was
discovered that
was over 1 million
times more
radioactive than
uranium, it was
named radium

Radium Continued

In 1910 Marie
isolated pure
radium metal

Her major
studies showed
that radium
gave out light
and heat, as
well as being
able to damage
living flesh

Radium cont.
In order to
obtain one
decigram of
pure radium
chloride salt,
Marie had to
sift through
hundreds of
tons of
pitchblende

Properties of Radium
Radium is
silver-white in
color
Today it is used
in small amounts
as a cancer
treatment and in
fluorescent
paint

Pierres Death

Pierre Curie was killed

tragically by a horse-drawn
cart in 1906

Teaching
It was decided
that Marie should
take over Pierres
teaching job at the
Sorbonne in 1906
This made
Marie the 1st
woman professor
at any French
university

Paris Radium Institute

In 1907 Marie
convinced the
French
government to
fund a radium
research
institute, to be
used mainly for
medical research

Health Problems
Marie believed
that working with
radium was not a
danger to her
health, however,
doctors today
have proven that
she was very
wrong

Health cont.
In 1911 Marie
collapsed from
depression and
severe kidney
problems that
were a result
of her longtime exposure
to radium

Radium Institute cont.

In August 1914 the Radium

Institute was finished, and named
after Maries deceased husband

World War II
Shortly after the
institute was
finished, Germany
invaded France
Maries staff was
cut short to two
people, herself
and her daughter
Irene

World War II cont.

Immediately
after the War
broke out Marie
donated all of her
money to the War
fund, and signed
up to be a nurse

X-ray Mobiles
Marie decided
that there
should be x-ray
machines that
the war doctors
could use on the
battle field for
soldiers

X-ray mobiles cont.

Marie created 20 mobile x-ray

machines and over 200 stationary
machines

Radon
Marie also invented
tiny glass tubes that
were filled with radon
( a radioactive gas)

Radon cont.

Doctors would insert the tubes in

patients at spots where the radiation
would destroy diseased tissue

After the War

After the War ended in 1918

Marie spent a lot of time with her
two daughters Irene and Eve

After the War cont.

After two or
three years with
her daughters
she resumed her
work with radium
at the Paris
institute

Declining Health
Marie had
been
working at
the radium
institute in
good health
for almost
12 years

She began
to notice
burns on
her hands
and her
failing
eyesight
somewhere
around
1932

Late Life

Maries blood had been weakened by

her constant exposure to radium
This caused her to catch aplastic
anemia

Late Life cont.

Marie eventually contracted

leukemia and died on July 14,
1934

Awards
Marie was
awarded
numerous small
awards during
her life such as
having her
picture placed
on a stamp!

Awards cont.
Marie was awarded
the Nobel prize in
physics in 1903 for
her work with Xrays
She was also
awarded the Nobel
prize in chemistry
in 1911 for her work
with radium

About Me!!!
Hi!Im Claire! I like food-all
kinds. And I like horses,
chickens(yes a little odd I
know), and talking!!!!!! Im
incredibly tall and I have red
hair!!!! I have
two sisters and
one brother,
they are all
older than me. I especially like
Chinese food and Mac n
cheese.

Bibliography
Marie Curie, Pierre Curie. Scientists: The Lives
and Works of 150 Scientists.1996 ed.
Tames,Richard.Marie Curie.New York:Franklin
Watts Inc.,1989.
Stille,Darlene.Extraordinary Women Scientists.
Chicago:Childrens Press,1995.
Notable Women Scientists.Farmington Hills,MI:the
Gale Group,1999.
Shriver,Duward. Radium.World Book
Encyclopedia. 2003 ed.

Bibliography cont.
Marie Curie and the Science of Radioactivity.
2000. American Institute of Physics.
28 April ,2005
<http://www.aip.org/history/curie/>
Marie Sklodowska-Curie. 30 April,2005.Wikipedia.
May 1, 2005. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Marie_Sklodowska_Curie>