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Marie Curie: Most Famous Female Scientist in History

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Marie Curie: Most Famous Female Scientist in History
Marie Curie

Marie Curie was one of the most famous female scientists in history. She was born on November 7, 1867 in Poland during the Russian Occupation (“Madame Curie”). Madame Curie was the youngest out of five children. She was a bright child that loved to learn, and was always the top in her class. Her discovery of Polonium and Radium led her to be the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize. Madame Curie passed away at age 67 on July 4, 1934, due to over exposure to penetrating radiation (“1867-1934”). Madame Curie was born to the name of Maria Salomea Sklodowska. She was the youngest daughter of Bronislava Boguska Sklodowska and Wladislaw Sklodowski. Her mother, Bronislava Sklodowska was the principle of an all-girls private school and her father, Wladislaw Sklodowki, was a physics and mathematics teacher at an all boys high school (Borzendowski 4). Both her parents being teachers, Maria, nicknamed Manya, was brought up in an environment full of love and learning. By the age of four, she learned to read, and before long, she was able to read better than her older sister, Bronya. Even though Manya was exceptionally smart, she was very shy and highly emotional. At the age of eight, Manya’s oldest sister, Zofie, died of typhus (“Marie Curie”). However, her ambition and thirst for knowledge was not let down by the devastating event of her sister’s passing. Since Manya academically surpassed all her peers, she was put in an advanced placement class with the older girls. A couple years later, when Manya was ten, her mother lost a hard-fought battle with tuberculosis and died, leaving Manya with just two sisters, a brother, and a father. Manya later wrote, “This catastrophe was the first great sorrow of my life and threw me into a profound depression” (Borzendowski 10). Although the family was left mournful, they still were dedicated to education. Mr. Sklodowski enrolled Manya in a government-run high school when she was fourteen, and on June 12,

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