You’ve probably heard of Marie Curie. She won two Nobel Prizes, one in physics and one in chemistry. Pierre Curie, Marie´s husband, won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1903 with Marie Curie. But did you know that her daughter Iréne Curie won the Nobel Prize jointly with her husband, Frédéric Joliot-Curie, in 1935 for the discovery of artificial radiation?
Here are some other things you probably didn’t know:
After Pierre was killed in 1906 Marie took his teaching position at the Sorbonne, making her the first female professor at the university.
Marie Curie and her daughter Irene worked to improve X-rays during WWI. Marie created portable X-ray machines for the war.
In 1921, Marie Curie went to the United States where President Harding gave her a gram of radium purchased due to a collection made by American women.
She founded the Radium Institute in 1932.
Some people say that some of her possessions, like her notes and cookbook, are so radioactive even today that they are locked in lead boxes and nobody is allowed to touch them.
According to Marie´s daughter Eve, Marie spoke five languages: Polish, Russian, German, French and English.
All in all, Marie Curie contributed a lot to our understanding of chemistry, physics, and medicine.