Marie Curie

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Hello and welcome to Dead Funny History. I'm Greg Jenner.
I'm a historian and I want to tell you about someone cool. Today we are talking about a woman who was as rock and roll

as she was clever. Marie Curie discovered brand new elements, won awards and used physics and chemistry to completely change the way we understand science.

Marie was born Marie Sklodowska in 1867 in Warsaw, Poland, which at that point was part of the Russian Empire.

Marie was the youngest of five kids, Zofia, Josef, Bronislava, known as Bronja, and Helena. Both of her parents, Bronislava and Vladislav, were teachers and cared passionately about their education.

But sadly, both her mum and one of her sisters died of TB when Marie was young. When she was 10, Marie went to school and did really well.
She ended up top of her class.

But when they got older, Marie and her sister Bronya weren't able to go to university because they were women. What?

I know.

Both Marie and Bronya attended an illegal underground school called the Flying University.

Not that type of flying. It was also sometimes called the floating university.

It wasn't on a boat either. It meant that they had to keep moving locations to escape detection by the authorities.

In fact, I've got all the oddities. Some young people rebel by getting, you know, bits of their body pierced or dying their hair.
Marie rebelled by studying chemistry.

I'm staying in and reading one more chapter of my chemistry textbook, and you can't stop me.

And I've eaten all my vegetables, so there.

Marie had big dreams of studying at the Sorbonne University in Paris, in France, but their family couldn't afford it. So Bronya and Marie struck a deal.

Marie got a job to fund Bronya's education, and then Bronya would return the favour.

Now that goes way above and beyond the usual sisterly sharing, much better than letting her use your Game Pass subscription.

In 1894, a 24-year-old Marie finally got her chance to go to the Sorbonne.

In Paris, the city of romance. Excuse you, I'm here for science, not love.

Although Marie could only afford to live in a very cold attic room, she was finally living her dream and she wrote in her diary,

It was like a new world opened to me, the world of science, which I was at last permitted to know in all liberty.

And Marie did brilliantly, completing master's degrees in maths and physics with flying colours in just three years. But that wasn't all Paris had in store for Marie.

While she was looking for a lab to do her science work in, she met another scientist called Pierre Curie. Bonjour!

Like Marie, Pierre was passionate about science and education. Let's just say that they had very good chemistry.

Babe, you are as attractive as an electoral magnet. Let's bond together like

a fluorine compound.

I'm going to call you my adrojon.

Because you're my number one.

They fell in love.

Maybe I am in Paris for love after all.

Thanks, city of romance. You are welcome!

Marie was proud to be Polish and wanted to return home to study at Krakow University, but they still wouldn't give her a place because she was a woman.

I know, I know. So Marie decided to stay in Paris and Marie and Pierre were married in 1895.
A white wedding! Romantique! Not quite!

Not only was it a non-religious ceremony, but Marie thought it was silly to spend all that money on a white dress she'd never wear again.

So instead, she wore a dark blue dress, which she famously used as her lab uniform. A lab dress wedding.
Practical and romantic.

The Curies became interested in the work of French scientist Henri Becquerel, who was doing fascinating experiments with an element called uranium.

And he had discovered that it gave off its own strange energy called radiation.

Marie's own research into uranium fundamentally changed people's thoughts about science. Previously, the atom was thought to be the smallest possible thing.

Couldn't possibly divide it into anything smaller, but Marie disproved that.

And as if that wasn't enough, Marie and Pierre also discovered two brand new elements. You cannot underestimate the significance of discovering not one, one, but two new elements.

It it was like that moment when Justin Bieber was discovered on YouTube, combined with the discovery that peanut butter and jam go really well together.

Marie and Pierre called these new elements polonium after my beloved Poland and radium

because it's radioactive. And while I'm at it, I will invent the term

radioactive. This was huge.
And since they didn't get much support from the university, Marie and Pierre Curie did most of that work in a leaky shed. Not ideal.

Oh, I worked my handsome leg into a bucket. In 1903, Marie received her doctorate, becoming the first woman in France to get one.

Her research was declared to have done more for science than any previous thesis, and she was rewarded by...

not being nominated for the Nobel Prize alongside her husband Pierre and Henri Becquerel for their work on radiation. Oh, for goodness sake!

But a Swedish mathematician named Magnus Josta Mitag Leffler found out about it and he said, That is as unfair as my name is long.

He and Pierre insisted that Marie's name be included too. More effective allyship than posting a hashtag.
Hashtag you're welcome.

Marie Curie was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, and the award changed the lives of the Curies. Things were looking up.

But then things were looking down.

In 1906, Pierre tragically died after falling under a horse-drawn cart, leaving behind a devastated Marie and their two daughters, Eve and Irene.

Marie was heartbroken, but went back to work to become the first woman physics professor at the Sorbonne University.

She wrote in her diary, Crushed by the blow, I did not feel able to face the future.

I could not forget, however, what my husband used to sometimes say: that even deprived of him, I ought to continue my work.

Marie continued to do groundbreaking science and rack up loads of impressive accolades. By 1909, she had finally got her own lab in Paris.
No more leaky sheds. Goodbye, Mockbuckets.

Hello! Professional respect of my peers. Yeah, not quite.
In 1911, the French Academy of Sciences still voted not to give her a membership. You're crying out loud.

But remember our Marie was a scientific rock star

and despite these setbacks later in 1911 she was awarded a second Nobel Prize this time in chemistry. She remains the only person ever to win two Nobel Prizes in two scientific fields.

Marie may have lost Pierre, but she was determined to use her work to save lives and to keep the memory of Pierre alive too.

She opened the Radium Institute in Pierre's memory. Oh,

thanks, babe. It's what Hot Pierre always wanted.

Radium can damage living flesh. And the Curie's research, which still carries on today at their institute, completely changed how we treat diseases like cancer.
But that wasn't all.

Marie's work became really important when

World War One began.

Now, after years of playing second fiddle to men, she could easily have just said, Oh,

look who's coming crawling now to girdly Marie from Poland.

But instead, Marie used her knowledge to develop a fleet of mobile X-ray units called Putit Curies.

What? Lots of little Marie-Curies like umpa lumpas? No, although that would have been cool though. Put it curry, do putty do.

I made a device that sees inside of you. Putit curies were game changers for injured soldiers who could now be treated more quickly and accurately.

Marie operated the x-ray machines herself on the front line, training her daughter Irene to do the same. That is a very intense take your kid to work day.

The bone is sticking out of the flesh. We'll take an x-ray to make sure no bits are in the side.

If were you, if this was a movie, I'd be too young to watch it. It's character building like an extreme devi.

Marie was a war hero. Go Marie! And go Irene, who became a scientist just like her mum and dad.
In 1934, Irene was up for a Nobel Prize.

As celeb kids' achievements go, it's a world away from Brooklyn Beckham's photos. Take your lens cap off Brooklyn.
Sadly, Marie didn't get to see Irene get her award, as on the 4th of July 1934.

Oh, I'm feeling quite ill.

In fact, I've been feeling ill since the 1920s. Tragically, even though radium has the power to do amazing things, it's also extremely dangerous.

Throughout their lives, both Marie and Pierre were constantly unwell, but they didn't know that radium exposure was so bad for them. Occupational health obviously wasn't a thing in those days.

Marie, to start your health and safety assessment, I'm going to switch on my Geiger counter.

Okay.

I'll just tick the Everything is Dangerously Radioactive box.

Still, at least your desk posture is good. Marie Curie died aged 66, probably from a blood disease caused by too much exposure to radium.
Okay, dying now.

Don't touch my stuff.

I mean, clearly, don't touch my stuff. It'll probably kill you.
Marie dedicated so much time to studying radium, she became radioactive herself. Her body is quite literally toxic!

Marie even had to be buried in a coffin lined with lead to keep other people safe from her. Even her notebook is still toxic.

It's so radioactive, it glows in the dark and won't be safe to touch for another 1,500 years. I've been to the year 3000.
Not much has changed, but we can touch Mary Curie's radioactive notebook.

And your great-great-great-granddaughter probably has a Nobel Prize. A Nobel Prize! Mary Curie's legacy is amazing.

A groundbreaking scientist, an advocate for Polish liberty, for women's education, a double Nobel Prize winner, a war hero, and an innovator whose discoveries have saved countless lives.

And, as she didn't let her wedding dress go to waste in the attic, also an advocate for sustainable fashion. In 1944, Marie and Pierre even had a newly discovered element named after them.

Oh, thank you, baby.

It's what we've always wanted. Curium sounds like a cure.
It's actually incredibly radioactive and deadly. Oh, wait a rub it in, guys.

And in 1995, Marie and Pierre's coffins were moved. Very carefully, because, you know.
Tax ek

and they were placed in Paris's Pantheon of Heroes. Hang on Greg, you've already covered a woman immigrant war hero who's honored in the Pantheon of Heroes in the Josephine Baker episode.

Yeah, Marie is National Hero Pantheon pals with Josephine Baker.

Legends both. So how much do you remember from today's speedy history lesson? Let's find out.
Pencils are the ready.

Question one: Where was Marie Curie born?

Warsaw, Poland. Question two, name one of the two elements that Marie and Pierre Curie discovered.

Radium and polonium.

Question three.

What were the mobile X-ray units that Marie and Irene used to help out in World War I?

Petit Curies.

Well done. Join us next time for another snappy history lesson.
Thanks for listening. Bye.
This was a BBC Studios audio production for Radio 4.

Dead Funny History was written by Gabby Hutchison Crouch, Athena Kublenu, and Dr. Emma Nagoos.
The researcher was Dr. Emmy Rose Price Goodfellow.

It was hosted by me, Greg Jenner, and performed by Malianne Reese and John Luke Roberts. The script consultant was Professor Ewan Morris.

Hi, Cyndia here. I'm very excited to bring you the return of Child.

So we've been on the journey of an embryo all the way to a baby's first birthday. And now we are going to enter the explosive life of the toddler.

Because this is the perfect place to unpick the very complicated world of emotions. The emotions that affect us all.

So come with us as over eight episodes we fall through the abundant and dizzying world of happiness, descend into the depths of fear and the gendered and dangerous world of anger.

and then crawl, wobble and bounce our way through awe, love, anxiety, and surprise. From BBC Radio 4, this is Child with me, India Rakerson.
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