Radioactive Substances

In 1911, Marie Curie received the Nobel prize in chemistry for isolating radium. This profound distinction literally cost the scientist her life, for she ultimately died from exposure to the deadly rays from the element she and her husband discovered. Here is her story, recounted in her own words, of the momentous discovery and her further investigation of radioactive substances. Born in Poland in 1867, Marie Sklodowska enrolled at the Sorbonne after the University of Warsaw refused her admissio…