Sklowdoska was one of the few women that really made a huge difference in their lifetime, especially in an era in which women were just that - women, presumably without the same ability to learn and work as men did! Madame Marie Curie, as she is often referred to in recent times, proved, through her hard and sustained work and brilliant results, not only that where there's a will there's a way, but that science can be put to the good use of mankind. Consequently, throughout her 67 years of life, she struggled (sometimes even against all odds) to do just that.

Born in Warsaw to Polish parents, Maria showed signs of her immense intellectual capacities from a very early age. Both her parents were teachers and the future scientist, the youngest of the five children, was taught from the day she could barely speak the value and importance of learning, a thing that she would later verify for herself. As a teen, Maria's life was marred first by the death of one of her sisters and then by that of her mother, but she refused to let that change her trajectory in a negative way. At 15, she graduated from high school at the top of her class and those who knew her would say that she would often forget even to eat and/or sleep when she was involved in one project or another, to that extent her dedication went.

After graduating from high school, Marie tried to enlist for classes at the university, but was denied this right, because of the Russian reprisals against the Polish 1863 uprising. Her elder sister was studying medicine in Paris and Maria was forced for a while to take up various odd jobs in order to support her financially and, at the same time, to attempt to raise money so that she too could be able to study abroad. Eventually, Maria attended classes at the illegal Floating University in Warsaw and found a good paying job as a governess, that allowed her to travel to Paris in 1891 and to finally enlist at the Sorbonne.

Now a student of mathematics, physics and chemistry, Maria was at last free to focus on her studies: a couple of years later, she would obtain her master's degree in mathematics and, nine years afterwards, her doctorate, under the supervision of Henri Becquerel. She was the first woman in France to complete her researches and obtain a doctorate diploma. While at the Sorbonne, Maria met the two men that would help her become the icon that she is today: one of them was her husband, Pierre Curie, and the other her doctorate supervisor, Becquerel.

For many years, the three observed and analyzed radioactive materials, only to realize that the ore of the uranium was more radioactive than the uranium that was extracted from it, because of some substances that were unknown until that time. In 1898, Marie Curie had identified and labeled said substances as polonium (named so in the honor of her native country) and radium (called this way because of its high radioactivity). The three continued their long hours of research and Marie Curie eventually isolated the radium from the rest of the substances, through a process that she refused to patent so that science as a whole and every other scientist interested could use at will.

As a result of the countless hours spent in the lab, Marie Curie was first awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 (together with Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel) for her contribution in the field of radiation and radioactivity. Eight years later, she was awarded yet another Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry, thus becoming the first woman ever to win a Nobel Prize and the second person (and the only woman) to ever win or share two of said distinctions in two separate fields. After 1911, Marie Curie made the unprecedented move of refusing to have the process of isolation of radium patented, opting for a poorer life but with the possibility of others benefiting from her breakthrough discovery as well. Also, a couple of months after receiving the second Nobel Prize, the scientist was admitted into the hospital for depression and a kidney ailment: her husband's death (in 1906) and the pain it caused her had finally taken their toll on Marie Curie's frail body.

However, after she recuperated a bit, Marie continued her seemingly endless work: once World War I broke, she not only advocated the use of mobile radiography units (also called petites Curies) but she personally got involved in providing the radium necessary for them and in training the nurses that would use them. Even more, her generosity did not stop here - a couple of years later, she donated her and Pierre's gold Nobel Prize medals and what little else she had. Once the war was over, Marie Curie was touring the United States, lecturing and raising money for more research on radium - that, despite the fact that she was an extremely shy person who only felt comfortable when in the lab and certainly not when in the public limelight.

Madame Marie Curie died in 1934 from leukemia caused by the very substance that she dedicated her entire life to. However, her work, as much as her dedication, will be remembered for ever: Marie Curie was not only a scientist with a purpose, she was also a scientist who put her discoveries to a very noble use. For that, and for so much more, the least we can do is to take a moment and remember that today would have been her birthday. So, what do you say: IN or OUT for the most famous woman in physics and chemistry?

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