Marie was born in Poland in 1867, which was ruled by Russia at the time. Polish students were to be taught only in Russian, not Polish. Marie's parents were poor schoolteachers and they taught Marie about Poland and its history. Her name, Marie Curie-Sklodowska includes her Polish name.
Women were not allowed to attend universities in the Russian empire, so Marie and her sister Bronya made a pact. First, Bronya would attend medical school in Paris and Marie would work to support her. Then Bronya would pay for Marie to come to school in Paris.
Off to Paris! Marie worked for six long years until Bronya finished medical school. Marie moved to Paris to study science at the University of Paris. She lived in a small room with little heat and ate mostly bread with an occasional egg. Yet, she was thrilled to be learning science. She finished a master's degree in physics and then one in mathematics.
Married to a Scientist In 1894, Marie met Pierre Curie, a famous scientist. A year later, they married. Marie began working on a dissertation, a very long research project that students do to receive a PhD. She knew about another scientist's discovery of mysterious rays that uranium sent out. Marie decided to investigate these rays. She began to check all chemical elements known at the time. Soon, she found that the element, thorium, also gave off these strange rays. She decided to give the rays a name, radioactivity. Her biggest discovery was that the radioactivity came from the atoms themselves not from whatever molecule the atom was part of. For example, pure uranium is a heavy, shiny metal. One uranium compound is a black powder. Both will emit radioactivity based on the amount of uranium, so only the uranium is emitting the radioactivity.
Rock Mystery! Uranium is found in a rock called pitchblende. Marie found an even bigger mystery in these rocks. There was more radioactivity than would come from the uranium in them. Could there be a new, undiscovered element in these rocks? Pierre decided to help Marie find out. From then on, they worked together. They would grind up pieces of the rock, use chemicals to dissolve some of the materials, heat up huge batches in a large kettle. Marie wrote, "Sometimes I had to spend a whole day mixing a boiling mass with a heavy iron rod nearly as large as myself." The place where they worked made the whole process even worse. It was an old shed with holes in the roof; freezing in winter and burning hot in summer. But they kept on trying to purify the mysterious radioactive substance.
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