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- Curie, Marie (born Sklodovska)
- 1867-1934. Polish scientist, who investigated
- radioactivity, and with her husband Pierre
- (1859-1906) discovered radium. Born in
- Warsaw, she studied in Paris from 1891.
- Impressed by the publication of Becquerel's
- experiments, Marie Curie decided to
- investigate the nature of uranium rays. In
- 1898 she reported the possible existence of
- some new powerful radioactive element in
- pitchblende ores. Her husband abandoned his
- own researches to assist her, and in the same
- year they announced the existence of polonium
- and radium. They isolated the pure elements
- in 1902. Both scientists refused to take out
- a patent on their discovery, and were jointly
- awarded the Davy Medal (1903) and the Nobel
- Prize for Physics (1903; with Becquerel). In
- 1904 Pierre was appointed to a chair in
- physics at the Sorbonne, and on his death in
- a street accident was succeeded by his wife.
- She wrote a Treatise on Radioactivity in
- 1910, and was awarded the Nobel Prize for
- Chemistry in 1911. She died a victim of the
- radiation among which she had worked in her
- laboratory.
-