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Marie Curie

Marie Curie has done great things for science.   Her Discoveries have caused great technological advances, especially in the field of Medicine.   She was born as Maria Sklodowski on November 7, 1867 in Warsaw, Poland, which was then occupied by the Russian Empire.   Maria was the youngest of five children: Zofia, Jozef,   Bronya, and Helena.   Her mother Bronislawa   Sklodowski was head mistress of an all girls boarding school in Warsaw and her father was a mathematics and physics teacher at an all boy school.   They were of the Catholic faith.   Maria’s parents were Polish patriots and they taught their children to be the same causing the family to face prejudices from there Russian superiors.   Her father was out into progressively lower positions because of his nationalistic beliefs and lost nearly all of his savings in a bad investment.   The Family was forced to take in borders to raise funds.   Marias eldest sister contracted typhus from one of the borders and died.   Her father died soon after from tuberculosis. When she was twelve Maria suffered from Acute Depression caused by her family’s troubles.   Maria along with her sister Bronya began attending the “Floating University”, an illegal night school in which classes moved from one disclosed location to another.   Here she studied sociology, literature, and only gradually began focusing on mathematics and Physical Science.   She later moved to France with her sister and brother-in-law and began to attend the University of Paris.   In 1893 she received her master’s degree in mathematics and in 1894 she received a second for physical science.   Marie began studying at the School of Physics and Chemistry, where she met her husband Pierre Curie.   They were drawn together by their mutual interests in science and married one year later in a small civil ceremony.   Marie dropped her Catholic faith and became Agnostic. At First, laboratory conditions were harsh, and the Curie’s were forced to conduct experiments in an old shed....