In 1911, in the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, a historic moment happened as Marie Curie stepped forward to receive her second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry. As the first person to win Nobel Prizes in two different scientific fields, she was honored for discovering radium and polonium and investigating their properties.

Marie Curie was born Skłodowska Maria on November 7, 1867, in Warsaw, Poland. Growing up under Russian occupation, she faced significant barriers to education but excelled academically. In 1891, she moved to Paris to study at the Sorbonne, where she earned degrees in physics and mathematics. There, she met and married Pierre Curie in 1895, and together they made groundbreaking discoveries in radioactivity, leading to a shared Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903.

After Pierre's tragic death in 1906, Marie continued their work and became the first woman to hold a professorship at the Sorbonne. In 1911, she was awarded a second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry, for her discovery of radium and polonium.

During World War I, Curie developed mobile X-ray units, known as "Little Curies," which were used to treat wounded soldiers. Despite her immense contributions, her long-term exposure to radiation led to her death from aplastic anemia on July 4, 1934. Marie Curie's legacy endures through her pioneering research and its lasting impact on science and medicine.

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