An Animated Introduction to the Life & Work of Marie Curie, the First Female Nobel Laureate

Look­ing for an intro­duc­tion or rein­tro­duc­tion to the life and work of sci­en­tist Marie Curie?

You could have a peek at her orig­i­nal man­u­scripts, after first sign­ing a waiv­er and garb­ing your­self in pro­tec­tive gear, so as to avoid the radioac­tiv­i­ty per­me­at­ing her pos­ses­sions…

Or you could turn to song. Army of Lovers, the Crypts!, and the Dee­dle Dee­dle Dees have all writ­ten songs in cel­e­bra­tion of this bril­liant woman, the first female Nobel Lau­re­ate and only per­son in his­to­ry to have been award­ed Nobel prizes in two dif­fer­ent sci­ences.

(Her lead-lined cof­fin, for­bid­den stud­ies, and romance with fel­low physi­cist and hus­band Pierre are the stuff from which gold­en lyrics are spun…)

Or you could watch the TED-Ed ani­ma­tion above, writ­ten and nar­rat­ed by Dr. Shohi­ni Ghose, Physics Pro­fes­sor and Direc­tor of Wil­frid Lau­ri­er University’s Cen­tre for Women in Sci­ence.

Ghose coun­ter­bal­ances the tan­ta­liz­ing bio­graph­i­cal tid­bits of the world’s most famous female sci­en­tist with her actu­al con­tri­bu­tions to the fields of oncol­o­gy, tech­nol­o­gy, med­i­cine, and nuclear physics.

Ghose’s full TED-Ed les­son includes a review quiz and fur­ther resources.

To get an even more in-depth intro­duc­tion to the Curies, lis­ten to the episode of In Our Time, below.

And do remem­ber to put down the sparklers and pota­to sal­ad for a moment in silent recog­ni­tion that this July 4th marks the 83rd anniver­sary of Mme. Curie’s death from aplas­tic ane­mia, the result of pro­longed expo­sure to radi­a­tion.

Relat­ed Con­tent:

Marie Curie’s Research Papers Are Still Radioac­tive 100+ Years Lat­er

Marie Curie Attend­ed a Secret, Under­ground “Fly­ing Uni­ver­si­ty” When Women Were Banned from Pol­ish Uni­ver­si­ties

Free Online Physics Cours­es

Real Women Talk About Their Careers in Sci­ence

The Con­tri­bu­tions of Women Philoso­phers Recov­ered by the New Project Vox Web­site

Ayun Hal­l­i­day is an author, illus­tra­tor, the­ater mak­er and Chief Pri­ma­tol­o­gist of the East Vil­lage Inky zine.  Fol­low her @AyunHalliday.