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She was born in 1867 in Warsaw. She graduated high school with a golden medal.
In 1891 she left for Paris, where she was studying at Sorbon University. She graduated of physics
and mathematics at the university. Maria married Peter Curie
- 25 July 1895. Soon after Becquerel discovered
radioactivity, she started to investigate the problem of
radioactivity of different substances. She proved, that the
uranium compound radiation is proportional to contents of the uranium in the compound. She
discovered, that in some cases the uranium compound radiation is bigger than the radiation of
pure uranium. That means that there is another radioactive element. This element's radiation
should be very big, bigger than the radiation of uranium.
She managed to produce metallic radium. In 1898 Maria and Peter Curie announced that
they discovered two new radioactive elements - radium and polonium.
In 1903 they received (with Becquerel) a Nobel Prize. In
1906, after Peter's death, Maria Sklodowska-Curie succeeded to Sorbon's Radioactivity Department.
In 1911 she received another Nobel Prize (this time in domain of chemistry - for production of
metallic radium).
In 1914 during the first world war she was organizing the military radiology
therapeutics. She was cofounder of Radium Institute in Paris, where she worked. Unhappily
she had permanent contact with radiation. She felt ill. It was incurable.
Maria Sklodowska-Curie died in 1934.
