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See SF-Kraków Event Honoring Skłodowska Curie
Marie Skłodowska Curie: How she
changed the world
Marie Skłodowska Curie advanced not only science, but also women's place in the scientific
community. For that, Google honors her Monday with a special doodle.
By Chris Gaylord / November 7, 2011
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Marie Skłodowska Curie received a birthday salute on Monday with a painterly Google doodle.
Google
Marie Skłodowska Curie was a woman of firsts. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the
first person to win two of them, and the first of only two people to win a Nobel prize in two different
fields (chemistry and physics, in her case). She coined the term "radioactivity," discovered two
elements, and became the first female professor at the University of Paris.
No wonder Google celebrated her birthday this week. Monday would have been her 144th birthday.
The painterly Google doodle shows Mme. Skłodowska Curie at a desk, surrounded by beakers,
vials, and experiments.
Today's illustrated scene captures Curie pretty well. The Polish-French scientist worked tirelessly in
the lab with her husband, Pierre Curie. They came together over their research into magnetism, but
soon branched out into radioactivity – a field so new that Curie named it herself. People knew about
X-rays at the time, but in 1896 Skłodowska Curie's colleague Henri Becquerel discovered that
uranium salts emitted their own rays. Why? No one knew.
Curie grew fascinated by these invisible rays. How could they keep emanating (seemingly forever)
without any external power source? She and her husband made huge breakthroughs in
understanding radiation, including the discovery of two elements: polonium, named after her native
Poland, and radium, named for its potent radioactivity.
Skłodowska Curie's legacy still inspires women to achieve "firsts." Lauren Redniss's recent
biography of Curie, "Radioactive," is the first nonfiction graphic narrative become a finalist for the
National Book Award. What the heck is a "nonfiction graphic narrative," you ask? The book reads as
part history and part artwork. Redniss illustrates the story with cyanotype prints, a light and ghostly
style that actually resembles the faint blue glow of radium.
The Monitor recommended the book back in February, praising how it weaves together the twin
tragedies of "how Mme. Skłodowska Curie discovered the beautiful yet deadly element radium and
how her passionate personal life seemed equally incandescent yet toxic."
While Google never really explains how or why it choses certain people for its novelty banners, one
of the company's vice presidents, Marissa Mayer, has talked about the importance of presenting
good examples of women in male-dominated fields, such as science and technology.
"The number one most important thing we can do to increase the number of women in tech is to
show a multiplicity of different role models," Mayer told the Huffington Post earlier this year. "The
stereotype of that very complete and rigid picture of what being a computer scientist means really
hurts people's understanding and ability to identify with the role and say, 'Yes, this is something I can
be in and want to be in.' "
So, here's to you, Marie Skłodowska Curie. Happy birthday.
For more on how technology intersects daily life, follow Chris on Twitter @venturenaut.
[Editor's note: The original version of this story misstated that Marie Curie was the only person to
win two Noble Prizes in different categories. Linus Pauling won one in chemistry and the Peace
Prize several years later.]
See SF-Kraków Event Honoring Skłodowska Curie