What was Marie Curie's contribution to science?

Answer 1

Marie Curie was a Polish-born physicist and chemist best known for her pioneering work with radioactivity in France alongside her husband, the French physicist Pierre Curie.

Although not the one to discover the phenomenon, Marie Curie was the first to coin the term "radioactivity." The Curies were the first to discover and isolate the element Polunium, so named by Marie in honor of her birth country. They also discovered Radium along with developing a method for isolating radioactive isotopes.

Madame Curie developed and supervise the first radiation treatments for tumors, and during World War I established the first field radiology labs with mobile X-Ray machines of her design.

To accomplish all this, both Marie and her husband worked long hours teaching to afford the cost of their research - Marie herself was the first female professor at the University of Paris.

Curie is remembered as a humble woman highly regarded by her peers; her work in the fields of physics did not go unnoticed. In addition to a number of honorary degrees, awards and publications, Marie Curie was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, an honor she shared with her husband for their work in Physics in 1903. She is also the only woman to ever win the Nobel Prize twice: she earned one for her work in Chemistry in 1911. Winning in both Chemistry AND Physics also makes her the only person to ever have been awarded the prize in two different subjects.

One sad irony about Marie's life, and something for which she is known nearly as well as the discoveries already noted, is that she essentially died from overexposure to radiation - many speculate it was from her work with the field X-Ray machines during WWI, but it's likely a combination of all her time spent working with radioactive materials ... never realizing the powerful dangers that came with the powerful possibilities radioactive materials offer.

Answer 2

- discovered radium and polonium

- pioneered in the field of radioactivity

- created the theory of radioactivity

Answer 3

She did a lot of work with radioactive isotopes and died in the name of her research from cancer. She essentially discovered radiation.

Answer 4

she is best known for her investigation of radioactivity.

Answer 5

She and her husband/boyfriend discovered the radioactive material Radium (Ra) in the mineral pitchblende.