Marie Curie

Physicist

1867-11-07 – 1934-07-04

Marie Curie was a Polish-born French physicist and chemist who pioneered research on radioactivity. She won Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry and helped establish modern radiological science.

Books by Marie Curie

Recherches sur les substances radioactives
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Pierre Curie
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The discovery of radium
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Quotes by Marie Curie

Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.
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I was taught that the way of progress is neither swift nor easy.
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Certein bodies... become luminous when heated. Their luminosity disappears after some time, but the capacity of becoming luminous afresh through heat is restored to them by the action of a spark, and also by the action of radium.
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Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
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Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.
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Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.
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Certein bodies... become luminous when heated. Their luminosity disappears after some time, but the capacity of becoming luminous afresh through heat is restored to them by the action of a spark, and also by the action of radium.
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I was taught that the way of progress is neither swift nor easy.
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The first experiments on the biological properties of radium were successfully made in France, with samples from our laboratory, while my husband was living.
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I was taught that the way of progress was neither swift nor easy.
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A scientist in his laboratory is not a mere technician: he is also a child confronting natural phenomena that impress him as though they were fairy tales.
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My experiments proved that the radiation of uranium compounds can be measured with precision under determined conditions and that this radiation is an atomic property of the element of uranium.
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Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.
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I tried out various experiments described in treatises on physics and chemistry, and the results were sometimes unexpected. At times, I would be encouraged by a little unhoped-for success; at others, I would be in the deepest despair because of accidents and failures resulting from my inexperience.
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When radium was discovered, no one knew that it would prove useful in hospitals. The work was one of pure science. And this is a proof that scientific work must not be considered from the point of view of the direct usefulness of it.
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If I see anything vital around me, it is precisely that spirit of adventure, which seems indestructible and is akin to curiosity.
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I was only fifteen when I finished my high-school studies, always having held first rank in my class. The fatigue of growth and study compelled me to take almost a year's rest in the country. I then returned to my father in Warsaw, hoping to teach in the free schools.
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You cannot hope to build a better world without improving the individuals. To that end, each of us must work for his own improvement and, at the same time, share a general responsibility for all humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can be most useful.
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Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.
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One never notices what has been done; one can only see what remains to be done.
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