Breaking the Atom: Marie Curie

Marie Curie is the only person to win Nobel Prizes in two different scientific categories: Physics and Chemistry.  Yet she almost did’nt get the first one, because at the time women and everything they did was considered to be their husband’s or father’s property. Hence the first letter had come addressing Piere Curie, Mary’s husband.

It was Piere who insisted that they include her because it was mostly her discovery. However even after inclusion, she could’nt actually go in to recieve it since women were’nt allowed in to Noble Hall.

This is after what she discovered changed how we understand atoms. At the time people thought Atom’s were indestructible, however her experiments on radioactivity confirmed that radio activity was a propety some elements had intrinsically and this was not dependant on their temperature or state. Hence she concluded that there must be something coming from the atom which did’nt change the material propotery, which means the atoms were built of smaller particles and hence were destructible (going against the prevalent theory).

We have come a long way in giving women credit, but have we? Mansplaining still exists and the top in all fields , in politics, science, arts all are still run by men.

What can we do to encourage the next line of Marie Curie’s ?