Marie Curie Sklodowska

        Today, little bit about Poland and the Polish woman, Marie Curie Sklodowska (1867-1934), who opened the nuclear age. Marie Sklodowska, as she was called before marriage, was born in Poland in 1867. Both her parents were teachers who believed deeply in the importance of education. Since 1795, Poland was not listed on any map of the time because had been cut up and absorbed into three countries: To the east was Russia (including Warsaw); to the south was the Austrian Empire; and to the west was Prussia. Because of this situation, the Sklodowskis believed that Poland could become free only through the development of the mind—science—and through much hard intellectual work. Marie had her first lessons in physics and chemistry from her father. She had a brilliant aptitude for study and a great thirst for knowledge; however, advanced study was not possible for women in Poland. Marie dreamed of being able to study at the Sorbonne in Paris, but this was beyond the means of her family. To solve the problem, Marie and her elder sister, Bronya, came to an arrangement: Marie should go to work as a governess and help her sister with the money she managed to save so that Bronya could study medicine at the Sorbonne. When Bronya had taken her degree she, in her turn, would contribute to the cost of Marie's studies. When Marie was 35 years old with the degrees in physics and mathematics, she married Pierre Curie and both with a huge passion dedicated themselves to the science. As a result of their hard work, in 1903 the Curie’s won the Nobel Prize for their discovery of two elements radium Ra and polonium. 
But Marie Curie Skolodowska did not stop her research; she continued her work on radioactive elements and won the second Nobel Prize for chemistry for isolating radium and studying its chemical properties. After winning two Nobel Prizes she still  continued her researches into radioactivity up until her death from leukemia, due to many years of unprotected exposure to radiation at a time when its hazards were not yet known. Marie’s passion and persistence in science impress many people. What a woman!