Marie Curie and Radioactivity: Ian Graham’s Illustrated Life of a Two-Time Nobel Laureate
The discovery of radioactive elements such as polonium and radium was a huge step forward for science and a change of perspective. ’Radioactivity’, a word Marie Curie herself coined, described rays that could pass through solid substances and produce photographs. Marie Curie and Radioactivity tells the story of this remarkable woman, from her childhood until she became a famous scientist and the winner of two Nobel Prizes in two different sciences.
Author: Ian Graham
Title: Marie Curie and Radioactivity (The Eureka Moment series)
Format: English paperback (Book House), 128 pages, illustrated by Annaliese Stoney
Scope: Illustrated biography for young readers
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/1912537427 (ASIN 1912537427)
A Brilliant Student
Top of her class, she was one of the first women to study at university and graduate in her field. She married Pierre Curie, who worked alongside her in her research, and she went down in history as a visionary who changed the world of medicine.
X-Rays at the Front
During a tragic time, the First World War, her work was a vital help: with the mobile radiology cars she organised, doctors could see where a bullet had lodged in a soldier’s body and so save lives. These portable X-ray units are one of her least known and most moving achievements.
From Warsaw to Paris
Maria Skłodowska was born in Warsaw in 1867, when Poland was under Russian rule and women could not attend university there. She studied in a secret "Flying University" and worked as a governess to help pay for her elder sister’s medical studies in Paris, on the understanding that her sister would later help her. In 1891 she followed her to Paris and enrolled at the Sorbonne, where she earned degrees in physics and mathematics, living so frugally that she sometimes fainted from hunger. In 1895 she married the physicist Pierre Curie.
Polonium and Radium
Inspired by Henri Becquerel’s discovery that uranium gave off mysterious rays, Marie began to study the phenomenon, which she named radioactivity. Working with Pierre in a leaky shed, she processed tonnes of the mineral pitchblende and in 1898 identified two new elements: polonium, named after her homeland, and radium. In 1903 the Curies shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with Becquerel. After Pierre was killed in a street accident in 1906, Marie took over his professorship, becoming the first woman to teach at the Sorbonne, and in 1911 she won a second Nobel Prize, in Chemistry, the first person to win two.
The Cost
Nobody then understood how dangerous radiation was. Marie carried radioactive samples in her pockets and kept them in her desk, and she died in 1934 of a blood disease almost certainly caused by her exposure. Her laboratory notebooks are still radioactive and are kept in lead-lined boxes. In 1995 her remains, with Pierre’s, were moved to the Panthéon in Paris, making her the first woman honoured there for her own achievements.
Her Daughter Irène
During the First World War, Marie’s teenage daughter Irène worked alongside her in the mobile X-ray units. Irène went on to win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1935 with her husband, Frédéric Joliot, which makes the Curies a remarkable family of scientists.
For Young Readers
Curie’s story is one of the best a child can read about perseverance: a girl who was not allowed to go to university in her own country and became one of the greatest scientists of all time. The illustrations make the laboratory work easy to imagine.
Who Is It For?
Like the other books in the Eureka Moment series, it is short and illustrated, ideal for young readers and a good first biography of one of the great scientists of all time.
As an Amazon Associate, this site earns from qualifying purchases.
Part of the reading recommendations featured on books.sapiensverbum.com.
