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The Truth About Marie Curie’s Life & Death

Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize and is the only woman to have won the Nobel Prize twice. She won it for Physics in 1903 and for Chemistry in 1911.

Stephen Dalton
ILLUMINATION-Curated
4 min readDec 29, 2023

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Marie Curie — Tonynetone — Flickr.

Marie Curie, the Early Years

Marie Curie, born Maria Skłodowska in Warsaw, Poland, on 7 November 1867, displayed an early passion for science.

Although born of two teachers, she was denied higher education in Poland due to her gender. Her mother died early, and her father could not afford to send her to school.

She worked as a governess and pursued clandestine studies through Physics and Math books.

In 1891, her sister offered to support her studies if she moved to Paris. There, she enrolled at the Sorbonne University, where she met Pierre Curie, a physicist, and they married in 1895. The Curies had two daughters, Irène and Ève.

Together, Marie and Pierre Curie made groundbreaking discoveries in physics and chemistry while teaching at the Paris School of Chemistry and Physics.

They conducted pioneering research on radioactivity, isolating radium and polonium.

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Stephen Dalton
ILLUMINATION-Curated

Stephen Dalton is a retired US Army First Sergeant with a degree in journalism from the University of Maryland. Top Writer in Investing, Business, & Bitcoin!