01 Biography
Marie Skลodowska Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1867. Overcoming immense gender barriers, she became the first woman to earn a PhD in Physics in France, the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the only person ever to win Nobel Prizes in two different scientific fields - Physics (1903) and Chemistry (1911). She coined the term "radioactivity" and discovered two new elements: polonium (named after her homeland) and radium. She developed mobile X-ray units during WWI, personally driving them to field hospitals. She died of aplastic anaemia in 1934, almost certainly caused by decades of unprotected radiation exposure - she carried test tubes of radioactive isotopes in her pockets and stored them in her desk drawer.
02 Key Achievements
03 Notable Quote
"Nothing in life is to be feared, only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less."
04 Legacy
Her work laid the foundation for all nuclear physics and medical radiotherapy. Her lab notebooks are still too radioactive to handle safely without protective equipment.