Difficulty: Explorer (Level 1)
Have you ever seen something and thought, “Why does that happen?” or “What is that made from?” Being curious is a great thing. Marie Curie was very curious.
Curie was born in 1867 in Poland. She loved science more than anything else. At the time, women were not allowed to attend university in Poland. So she saved her money and moved to France. There, she studied physics and maths.
Curie and her husband, Pierre, worked together for many years in an old shed. They were trying to find a special element. To do this, they first needed to crush the materials they had into smaller pieces. Then they mixed them with a liquid. This helped separate the different parts. Finally, they cleaned what they found and measured everything.
Curie found two very important elements. One is called polonium. She named it after her home country. The other is called radium because it shines very brightly.
During World War I, Curie helped make X-ray machines that could move around. These machines saved the lives of many soldiers who were hurt. They helped doctors see the soldiers’ injuries more clearly.
In 1903, Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. She is still the only person ever to win a Nobel Prize in two different areas of science. These areas were physics and chemistry.
