“Marie Curie's decades of exposure left her chronically ill and nearly blind from cataracts, and ultimately caused her death at 67, in 1934, from either severe anemia or leukemia,” wrote Denis Grady for The New York Times.
On 4 July 1934, at the Sancellemoz Sanatorium in Passy, France at the age of 66, Marie Curie died. The cause of her death was given as aplastic pernicious anaemia, a condition she developed after years of exposure to radiation through her work. She left two daughters, Irene (born 1898) and Eve (born 1904).
“What is this?” I asked myself, but I must have said it out loud because Eve heard me. “Radium,” she said. “Radium?” “Those were her last words— 'Was it done with radium or with mesothorium?
Madame Curie, as she became known, was often praised for more than scientific achievement: “an exceedingly attractive woman, a delicate blonde with fair, blue eyes,” burbled one New York Times profile from 1903. A few months later she won her first Nobel Prize (in Physics, shared with Henri Becquerel and her husband).
Twice Buried. Our favorite two-time Nobel laureate was also buried twice! Madame Curie died of leukemia attributed to her radioactive work, and was buried alongside her husband Pierre in 1934. However, their remains would be re-interred at the Panthéon in 1995 with full honors.
They were married in July of 1895. (Fun fact: Marie Curie was always extremely practical, and insisted that her wedding dress be a dark color instead of the traditional white so she could wear it in their lab.)
“Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.”
Also, promptly after the war started, she attempted to donate her gold Nobel Prize medals to the war effort but the French National Bank refused to accept them. She did buy war bonds, using her Nobel Prize money. She said: I am going to give up the little gold I possess.
Physicist Albert Einstein (1879-1955) had cat, dog and parrot and Marie Curie (1867-1934) had a pet tiger.
CURIE WAS BURIED TWICE On July 6, 1934, she was interred in the same cemetery in Sceaux where her in-laws and Pierre lay. Over 60 years later the remains of Pierre and Marie Curie were re-interred in France's national mausoleum, the Panthéon, in Paris.
While earning her degree in Paris, Curie lived frugally and ate mostly buttered bread and tea—a diet that often caused her to faint from hunger. 3.
Curie carried out groundbreaking research, providing the first detailed description of radioactivity and using its detection to discover two new elements: polonium and radium. She was awarded Nobel prizes in physics (1903) and in chemistry (1911).
Marie Sklodowska-Curie died on 4 July 1934 of leukemia caused by prolonged exposure to radioactive substances.
Scientist Irène Joliot-Curie died of radiation exposure, just like her mother. Irène Curie was born in Paris on September 12, 1897. She was the first daughter of Marie Curie and Pierre Curie, scientists who weren't well known yet at the time of Irène's birth.
Marie had a tragic early childhood. Aged 10, Marie's sister died from typhus and two years later her mother died from tuberculosis. Marie's father struggled to support his family, but Marie hoped to go to university. This was an unusual choice for a woman at the time.
She succeeded her husband as Head of the Physics Laboratory at the Sorbonne, gained her Doctor of Science degree in 1903, and following the tragic death of Pierre Curie in 1906, she took his place as Professor of General Physics in the Faculty of Sciences, the first time a woman had held this position.
Together with her husband, she was awarded half of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903, for their study into the spontaneous radiation discovered by Becquerel, who was awarded the other half of the Prize. In 1911 she received a second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry, in recognition of her work in radioactivity.
Born on May 15, 1859, French scientist Pierre Curie had initially rejected the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics. Pierre, who discovered radium and polonium with wife Marie Curie, accepted the award on the condition that her contribution was also recognised, making Marie the first-ever female Nobel Laureate.
Einstein, who would later remark that “Marie Curie is, of all celebrated beings, the only one whom fame has not corrupted,” writes: Highly esteemed Mrs. Curie, Do not laugh at me for writing you without having anything sensible to say.
The Greatness of Marie Curie Dreams
She craved for an independent Poland, as under Russia, the Polish people did not have much to hope for, especially the intellectuals. However, Marie Curie did the impossible in such conditions – she opted for higher education.
The term radioactivity was actually coined by Marie Curie, who together with her husband Pierre, began investigating the phenomenon recently discovered by Becquerel.
She won a Nobel prize together with her husband Pierre for their efforts. Actually, she won two Nobel prizes: the first with Pierre, and the second on her own a decade later. But Madame Curie was more than just an eminent scientist. She was also a remarkable mother.
Discussion: Were the Remains of the Curies Cremated? The remains of the Curies were found in their graves in Sceaux in 1995 so they were not cremated after their deaths in 1906 and 1934. In 1995, after exhumation, they were placed in coffins specifically made fit the niches in the Pantheon. They were not cremated.
It is indisputable that Marie Curie was one of the most important contributors to the world of science and health care — but she did so at the expense of her own health. As she continued to investigate the subject with her husband, Pierre, Marie carried bottles of polonium and radium in her coat pocket.