00:00Women who change the world.
00:30Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
00:36Marie Curie
00:37Maria Sklodowska was born on the 7th of November, 1867, in Warsaw, Poland.
00:45She was the youngest of five children, and was brought up in a poor but well-educated family.
00:51Maria excelled in her studies and won many prizes.
00:55At an early age, she became committed to the ideal of Polish independence from Russia,
01:01who at the time were ruling Poland with an iron fist, and in particular, making life difficult
01:07for intellectuals.
01:08In 1891, she went to Paris to study physics and mathematics at the Sorbonne, where she
01:16met Pierre Curie, professor of the School of Physics.
01:19They were married in 1895.
01:22Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and the first person, man or woman,
01:28to win the prestigious award twice.
01:31She remains the only one to be honored for accomplishments in two separate sciences.
01:36In 1903, Curie received the Nobel Prize in Physics, along with her husband and Henri Becquerel,
01:43for their work on radioactivity.
01:46With their win, the Curies developed an international reputation for their scientific efforts, and
01:52they used their prize money to continue their research.
01:55In 1911, Curie won her second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry, for her discovery of radium
02:03and polonium.
02:05While she received the prize alone, she shared the honor jointly with her late husband in
02:10her acceptance lecture.
02:12Around this time, Curie joined with other famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Max
02:18Planck, to attend the first Solvay Congress in Physics, and discuss the many groundbreaking
02:24discoveries in their field.
02:26Marie married French physicist Pierre Curie on July 26, 1895.
02:32They were introduced by a colleague of Marie's after she graduated from the University of Sorbonne.
02:39At first, Marie and Pierre worked on separate projects.
02:43But after Marie discovered radioactivity, Pierre put aside his own work to help her with her research.
02:51When World War I broke out in 1914, Curie devoted her time and resources to helping the cause.
02:57She championed the use of portable x-ray machines in the field, and these medical vehicles earned
03:04the nickname, Little Curies.
03:06After the war, Curie used her celebrity to advance her research.
03:10She traveled to the United States twice, in 1921 and in 1929, to raise funds to buy radium and to establish
03:19a radium research institute in Warsaw.
03:23Marie Curie discovered radioactivity, and together with her husband Pierre, the radioactive elements
03:29polonium and radium, while working with the mineral pitchblend.
03:34Curie conducted her own experiments on uranium rays, and discovered that they remain constant,
03:41no matter the condition or form of the uranium.
03:43The rays, she theorized, came from the element's atomic structure.
03:49This revolutionary idea created the field of atomic physics.
03:54Curie herself coined the term radioactivity to describe the phenomena.
03:59Marie Curie made many breakthroughs in her lifetime.
04:03Remembered as a leading figure in science and a role model for women, she has received numerous
04:09posthumous honors.
04:10Several educational and research institutions and medical centers bear the Curie name, including
04:17the Curie Institute and Pierre and Marie Curie University, later renamed UPMC.
04:24In 1995, Marie and Pierre Curie's remains were interred in the Pantheon in Paris, the final
04:31resting place of France's greatest minds.
04:34Curie became the first, and one of only five women, to be laid to rest there.
04:40In late 2017, the Pantheon hosted an exhibition to honor the 150th birthday of the pioneering
04:48scientist.
04:56Women Who Changed the World
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