Marie Curie

Manya Sklodowska

In my opinion, a person that is called a hero must do something that makes his/her nation looks different. But sometimes they also can change the world into a better place, for example this women hero.

Manya Sklodowska was born November 7, 1867 in Warsaw, Poland. She would be famous for her research of Radioactivity and was the first women who won the Nobel Prize. Maria grew up in a family that valued education. Her parents were teachers. She was the fifth child of 5 siblings. Her brother, Zoshia, died because of the typhus. But Bronya, who also got typhus, recovered. Then, a few months later, Manya’s mother died. Manya was a smart girl in her school. But she always got problem with her Russian teacher. At that time, Poland was colonialized by Russia and had a big war. No higher education was available to women in Poland at that time, so Manya took a job as a governess. Manya gave some private lesson to some children of rich family. But sometimes Manya got a small lesson-fee. Because she was wise in saving the money, she gave half of her money to her sister, Bronya, who wanted to go to Paris to work. Finally, Bronya went to Paris and married to a fellow doctor in 1891.

Marie and Pierre Curie

Manya went to join them in Paris, changing her name to Marie. She entered the Sorbonne (now the Universities of Paris) and studied Physics and Mathematics there. In 1894, Marie met a French Chemist named Pierre Curie, and they were married the following year.

Marie with her daughters, Irene and Eve

Marie Curie and her husband, Pierre, worked together on radioactivity, discovered that the metallic element Thorium also emitted radiation, and found that the mineral pitchblende emitted even more radiation than its uranium and thorium content could cause. It needed a long time that Marie and Pierre worked on it. Marie also discovered a new element, and she gave the named Polonium, from her city of born, Poland. Marie and Pierre had two daughters, Irene and Eve. She received a Nobel Prize as the first women who can found a new element from the other element. But Pierre Curie died in 1906, and it affects Marie’s life. She cannot live without his supports. But she concentrated all her energies into researching and caring her daughters. Irene, her older daughter, married a famous Nobel scientist. Because of her full strength energies, Marie got a problem with her eyes and respiration. She breathed so many chemical gases when she worked in her laboratory. And then she died in 1934 because of Leukemia. One of the outstanding applications of their work has been the use of radiation to treat cancer, one form of which cost Marie Curie her life.

I think that Marie Curie deserved to be said as a women hero, because she can discover and help people around the world to prevent CANCER! And she found the medicine, so that people, who get cancer, can be recovered. But sometimes, they will not. Because destiny is in God’s Hand and Mind. So we cannot guess it. And she deserved to have the Nobel Prize because she was a SMART woman! A perfect woman like this can be our inspiration to change our life too.