How Did Marie Curie Contribute To Science

The time of worldwide integration and technological advancement has adequately changed people’s lives. Science plays a crucial role in society and without each and every one of people that have contributed greatly to its field, the establishment and efficiency would not be where it is today. It is peculiar yet astonishing to think that at one point in time women were not even allowed to pursue an interest in the science field. As women broke through the wall that kept them from allowing science to wander their minds, major grounds were covered and extreme discoveries were revealed. Marie Curie contributed highly to the fields of Chemistry and Physics, regardless of the social impediments placed on women scientists. Marie Curie was the first true scientific pioneers and the first to explore the components and idea of radioactivity. With her persistent attitude, she did not let the social

negativity towards women hinder her from doing what she loved. Because of women like herself, the scientific horizons were opened to a degree that was never sought possible. Curie was the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 and another one in 1911 for Chemistry. Women had struggled to break through the ridicules and sex bias of women in science. However, due to the courageous individuals like Marie Curie who overlooked society’s rules, tremendous efforts, scientific theories, and explorations were uncovered.
Marie Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland November 7, 1897. She obtained an education from local public schools along with scientific background and training from her father. She came from a family where education was extremely important especially because both of her parents were teachers. Curie dreamt of pursing her education in Paris but she could not financially support herself and the costs of going to a University. She decided that she needed to leave Poland because no opportunities could derive as a woman interested in science there (Madame Curie, 1943). Curie had moved in with her sister in Paris so she could continue her education at the Paris University Sorbonne, proceeding with her studies Mathematics, Chemistry, and Physics. Curie studied during the day but tutored other students during the evening in order to make a little bit of money to continue to put herself through school. In July of 1894, she obtained her degree in Mathematics and then a short three years later and was also certified in Physics (Skwarzec, 2011).
In 1894 one of Marie Curie’s professors introduced her to Professor Pierre Curie to see if he could help guide her when it came to Physics. Due to the social standards and views towards women in science, he at first had an issue with teaching a female. He finally lets her work a little bit in his laboratory but then says she is a danger to science and that it is just a field in which women should not be involved in. He is weary about working on his experiments with a woman until he offers her an umbrella in the rain and held conversation for a while. At that moment he realized how intelligent she really was and he was intrigued with her level of thinking (Madame Curie, 1943). As Marie Curie and Pierre Curie were engaged in their experiments and research they developed a relationship and on July 26, 1895 they got married.
Now that they were married, their minds, bodies, and ideas never left the laboratory. Marie Curie began her scientific career in Paris with the examination of magnetic properties of various steels. She still dreamed of going back to Poland and pursuing a study and research experiment there in a specific field of study chosen by herself. When she was denied a position in Krakow University solely because she was a woman, she fled back to Paris. After that let down, in 1897 she began working in Pierre’s laboratory in the school where she managed numerous analyses on the magnetic properties of steel. While she did this she also looked around for ideas to conduct her doctoral thesis on (Skwarzec, 2011).
Although Curie did not discover radioactivity, she decided that she wanted to look further into this study and examine uranium rays as a field of research for her thesis.

Using an electrometer that measures electrical charges that her brother and husband had invented fifteen years prior, she uncovered the thorium gave off the same rays as uranium which generated the theory that uranium caused the air to give off an electric charge. Intrigued with the discoveries she was uncovering, she endured in her research and came up with the single most important component that she had ever revealed in her scientific career (McGrayne, 1993). Using the technique with the uranium, she analyzed that uranium activity only depended on the quantity of uranium present. While using various uranium minerals she tested her theory correct that they gave off energy and was a matter unlike any other. She discovered a new active element that measured an eight on the electrometer but only separately measured two each. This new element gave off a four extra measurement (Madame Curie,

1943).
No one had helped Marie Curie conduct this experiment or formulate ideas so she knew she could not let anyone know about her discoveries so she took them directly to her husband so she could have ownership of it. She knew that it was very likely that people would be skeptical of her work so early on in her career and on top of that, she was a woman and women’s work was looked at as unreliable during this era. She continued to test different minerals to see if there were any more that were radioactive and on this journey she discovered that thorium was in fact radioactive as well. She understood how fast she had to claim her work and document it so no one could demand it as their own (Skwarzec, 2011).
As time went on and Marie’s experiments expanded, Marie and Pierre were trying to find a new laboratory and equipment for this new element. They were given a piece of shelter that resembled a shed with no equipment. The rood leaked and they worked outside in cold winters, which were very difficult conditions to extract their new element. They decided to call their new element “Radium.” Together they continued systematic analyses and finally got radium and barium together from an ore. The new complication they had to endure was figuring out how to separate them (McGrayne, 1993). For three and a half years she persisted to try and separate them and her husband is beginning to give up. They notice that she has chemical burns from these elements and they were both told to abandon her experiment because these burns could develop into cancer (Madame Curie, 1943).
Going against what she was told, Marie’s mind instead got to work. She noticed that these elements were damaging her healthy body tissue. Like every skeptical scientist, she questions and investigates ways it could be used to destroy bad tissues that derive from cancer, which is now used today for cancer radiation. Marie and her husband decided to continue on with her experiment but with more precautions. They continued to use crystallization repeatedly to remove barium. They ended up taking 5,677 crystallizations until the pure radium remained, however this did not work because there was nothing left in the bowl. They thought they had failed but when they came back to test the stain, the radium was lighting up in the laboratory. They had finally discovered the pure form of radium. They decided to give it free to the world, and in exchange for their discoveries, the university gave them a new laboratory (Madame Curie, 1943).
In 1903, the Royal Swedish Academy or Sciences awarded Marie Curie and Pierre Curie the Nobel Prize in Physics for “ in recognition of the extraordinary services they rendered by their joint research on the radiation phenomena first discovered by Professor Henri Becquerel” (Skwarzec, 2011). Marie Curie had successfully been the first woman to receive a Novel Prize. Instantly after receiving the Nobel Prize, Marie Curie became famous. She was awarded enormous amounts of money for her contributions along with new laboratories, equipment, and professorships. In April of 1906 Marie’s husband was killed in a street accident by a horse and wagon, at that moment Marie described herself as a broken and lonely person. The Sorbonne Physics department originally created a chair for Pierre, but they gave it to Marie and she had full control and charge over the laboratories. On November 16, 1908 Marie became the first woman to be employed as a professor at Sorbonne University (McGrayne, 1993).
After her husband’s death she continued to emerge from his shadow and persist in their research they conducted together with radium. Marie Curie decided to prepare radium international standards. Within the next year she revealed 21.99 milligrams of pure radium chloride. In response the Radiological Congress created a new unit of radioactivity called a Curie, which was equivalent to one gram of radium. In 1911, Marie was rewarded her second Nobel Prize but this time it was for Chemistry. She was honored for her discoveries of radium and the isolation of radium along with the extensive study of this element’s nature. Most of her work she made it clear that it was a joint effort with her husband so he was not left behind. Many chemists consider her successful discovery of radium isolation just might be the best thing uncovered since oxygen was discovered (Skwarzec, 2011).
Not only was Marie Curie the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, but also she was the first person to win or share two Nobel Prizes. She was one of the only two people to be awarded a Nobel Prize in two different fields. In her later years of her life she focused mostly on her efforts to study further into radioactivity and her discovered element radium. In July 4, 1934 Marie Curie died where she was laid to rest as the first woman under the famous dome of Pantheon in Paris for her merits. Throughout her career Marie Curie earned fifteen medals, nineteen degrees, and many other honors because of her enormous contributions to the science field as a whole (McGrayne, 1993).
Ultimately, it is clear that Marie Curie had a tremendous amount to offer to the science field. Regardless of being female, she put forth a great amount of effort to endure the hardships society placed on women during that time. She broke down many walls and stereotypes about women and because of her the science field expanded such a great deal for the betterment of science and for patients in hospitals. She was a major component to science and allowed other women to step forward as well and believe in themselves. She worked extremely hard and did not give up when other scientists and employees turned down her work. Marie Curie lived an extravagant life, fulfilling many of her dreams, and making a difference in the world. Curie became such a role model for all women to look up to and due to her immense amounts of achievements and improvements, the science field was able to prosper in ways scientists never sought possible.