Stratton, the Director of the Bureau, which was then as now a part of the Department of Commerce. A replica of the coffer with dummy radium tubes was set on a table in the East Room of the White House during the ceremony. As the document indicates, it was a Certificate for Radioactive Material submitted for measurement and certification to the National Bureau of Standards. Instead, she was presented with a golden key to the coffer and a certificate. The hazardous source itself was not brought to the ceremony. Happy birthday, Marie Curie, and thank you! May your legend live on forever.On May 20, 1921, Marie Curie visited the White House to receive the gift of the gram of radium from President Harding. I can only hope to be half the scientist she was someday. The way she pushed society to improve, while continuing her pursuit of knowledge and the advancement of science, was absolutely astonishing. Madame Curie's work has inspired female scientists for decades and will continue to do so for years to come. Marie Curie was excited to see her daughter nominated but unfortunately died in 1934 before she could watch Irene accept the award. Irene later won a Nobel Prize along with her husband, Frederic Joliot, in chemistry for their work in creating new radioactive materials. Before she could finish her studies, World War II commenced, and she joined her mother as a nurse using X-ray machines to help treat wounded soldiers. The eldest of the Curie children, Irene, later followed in her parent's footsteps and enrolled at the Faculty of Sciences. This was also the year she was rejected from the French Academy of Sciences because of her immigrant roots and her gender. Curie received her second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry, for the work she did in radioactivity. Her life was full of firsts and breaking barriers for the female scientists to come. Curie became the first woman to be the Professor of General Physics at the Faculty of Sciences in Paris. Later that year, Marie Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize!Īfter Pierre's tragic death in 1906, Mme. After a letter from Gosta Mittage-Leffler, a sympathetic member of the nominating committee, was sent to Pierre, the omission was corrected. Curie's name was left off the original submission. In 1903 the couple was nominated for a Nobel Prize, but due to the sexist nature of society at the time, Mme. Once the dangers of Radium were discovered, it was removed from these products, of course. Factories sprouted up everywhere and Radium eventually made its way into just about everything from chocolate to cosmetics. When the Curie's originally discovered Radium in 1898, they refused to patent it and instead spread the word to other scientists. Marie left a sample of the material by her bed and used it as a nightlight. Pierre Curie was said to carry around a vile of Radium strapped to his arm because he was curious about how it seemed to burn him without causing any pain. At the time, no one was aware of how dangerous these elements are, so the couple often carried samples around with them in their pockets. The pair worked together in what was described by many scientists at the time as a "shack." It was in this shack that the couple discovered Polonium (Po) and Radium (Ra). While in France, she met a professor in the School of Physics, Pierre. Madame Curie was born in Poland in 1867 (151 years ago!) and later moved to France to further her studies.
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