Marie Curie is one of the most famous scientists in history. She was the first…

Marie Curie is one of the most famous scientists in history. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and she remains the only person ever to win Nobel Prizes in two different sciences, physics and chemistry.

She was born Maria Sklodowska in Warsaw, Poland, in 1867. Her parents were both teachers, and she was an excellent student. However, at that time women were not allowed to study at university in Warsaw. For several years she worked as a private teacher and saved money, and in 1891 she moved to Paris to study physics and mathematics at the Sorbonne. She often studied late into the night in a small, cold room, and sometimes she was so focused on her work that she forgot to eat.

In Paris she met Pierre Curie, a scientist who shared her passion for research. They married in 1895 and began working together. Inspired by the discovery that certain materials gave off invisible rays, Marie decided to study this strange energy, which she named "radioactivity". In 1898 the couple announced the discovery of two new elements. Marie called the first one polonium, after her home country, Poland. The second was radium.

Their work was hard and often dangerous. To obtain a tiny amount of radium, they had to process tonnes of mineral rock in a poorly heated shed. In 1903 Marie and Pierre shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with another scientist, Henri Becquerel. Three years later, Pierre was killed in a street accident. Marie was heartbroken, but she continued their research and took over his teaching post, becoming the first woman to teach at the Sorbonne. In 1911 she received a second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry.

During the First World War, Marie Curie put her knowledge to practical use. She developed mobile X-ray units, which became known as "little Curies", so that doctors could find bullets and broken bones in wounded soldiers close to the battlefield. She even learnt to drive so that she could take the equipment to the front herself.

At that time, the dangers of radiation were not well understood. Marie often carried samples of radium in her pockets, and her notebooks are still so radioactive today that they are kept in lead-lined boxes. She died in 1934 from an illness that was almost certainly caused by years of exposure to radiation.

Today, her discoveries are used in medicine, especially in the treatment of cancer, and her life continues to inspire young women around the world to become scientists.