When Obsession Becomes Deadly: The Life of Marie Curie

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When Obsession Becomes Deadly: The Life of Marie Curie Marie Curie, a pioneer in her field and Nobel Prize winning Chemist, took a path that few women of her time dared and unfortunately, her passion for Science would be her ultimate demise. From birth to death Marie Curie lived a full life, with love, work, and passion at the center. Maria Skłodowska was born in Warsaw, Poland, on 7 November 1867, the fifth and youngest child of well-known teachers Bronisława and Władysław Skłodowski. Maria's father was an atheist and her mother a devout Catholic. Two years earlier, Maria's oldest sibling, Zofia, had died of typhus. The deaths of her mother and sister, according to Robert William Reid, caused Maria to give up Catholicism and become agnostic. When she was ten years old, Maria began attending the boarding school that her mother had operated while she was well, next Maria attended a gymnasium for girls, from which she graduated on 12 June 1883. She spent the following year in the countryside with her father's relatives and the next with her father in Warsaw, where she did some tutoring. (Wikipedia 1) Against Russian law Marie attended Floating University. She and sister Bronya found work tutoring, and with the money Bronya saved enough to get to Paris and attend the University of Paris for a single year. (Yannuzzi 25). Maria made an agreement with her sister that she would give her financial assistance during Bronya’s medical studies in Paris, in exchange for similar assistance two years later. In connection with this, she took a position as governess (Wikipedia 1). After two years, Bronya married and invited Marie to Paris to conduct her studies. Maria denied at first, for she did not have to money for tuition and was ... ... middle of paper ... ...rk Sited Crawford- Brown, Douglas John. “Curie Marie Skłodowski.” World Book: 2003. Chicago, Illinois: World Book Inc., 2003. Georgie. “Marie Skłodowski.” Marie Curie. June, 2007. April 1, 2010. Lewis, Jone Johnson. “About Marie Curie.” Marie Curie. 27 January 2010. Web. 26 March 2010. Nobel Lectures. “Biography.” Marie Curie: The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903. 19 June 2009. Web. 26 March 2010. Wikipedia contributors. “Marie Curie.” Wikipedia The Free Encyclopedia. 16 March 2010. Web. 26 March 2010. Yannuzzi, Della. New Elements: The Story of Marie Curie. Greensboro, North Carolina: Morgan Reynolds Publishing, Inc., 2006.

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