Science Discoveries: Marie Curie and Radium

Author: Steve Parker
Copyright Date: 1995
Publisher: Chelsea House Publishers
Number of Pages: 32
Reading Level: Ages 10 & Up
Genre: Informational

Summary

This book goes through many significant events in Marie Sklodowska Curie's life. She was born in Poland in 1867 and grew up interested in subjects like science and math. When she was just a young girl, her sister died and two years after that her mother passed away. She finished school and was very smart. She worked as a teacher and governess and worked for many families; in her spare time she taught herself math and physics. She attended the University of Paris like her sister to earn a math and physics degree, and earned very high marks in her class--she began working in Gabriel Lippmann's laboratory (he was one of her math professors). She was married in 1895 to Pierre Curie and together they loved going on bike rides and being in the country. Pierre Curie was also a researcher and they did a lot of work together.

One of Marie's first studies was of the "magnetic properties of various alloys". Marie Curie was also very involved in radium research. She discovered radium through uranium research, which she found in pitchblende. Once Marie found radium as a strong energy source, she worked to get it into its purest form. She worked with many talented scientists, and finally she, Pierre and Henri Becquerel were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903. In 1910 Marie, alone this time, won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry because she isolated pure radium.

Throughout her married life she had a few kids, but some of them passed away. She also lost her husband because he wasn't paying attention as he crossed a Paris street--he was run over by a horse-drawn wagon. She and her husband were often sick because of their research and workings with radiation. When WWI began, she and her daughter supported and worked in the war effort--they did everything they could to help and save the soldiers. After all of her years of hard work, she eventually died of radiation sickness on July 4th, 1934. She "had suffered from radiation sickness for more than half her life," yet she dedicated it to research. Her research has led to many more discoveries and advancements in our world today.

Reaction

I thought this was a really great book. It did a good job of telling about her life and her accomplishments, and it even related her work to today. It was very well put together, I enjoyed it!

Recommendations

I honestly would recommend this to anyone. There are a lot of good things you can learn from reading this book!

Problems/Conflicts

The only thing that I think could be considered problems to some people is the fact that her husband and even some of her children die.