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Marie Curie was first woman scientist to feature on a postage stamp. This was in 1938, a mere four years after her death. The reason for these postage stamps was to celebrate 40 years of discovery of radium. Marie and Pierre Curie had made this discovery in 1898. In 1938, France issued 21 separate postage stamps, with identical design one each for its colonies. Cuba, Monaco, and Afghanistan also came up with a stamp each. This was the first global attempt to have a postal-omnibus. Marie curie’s incredible journey was in itself a celebration.

Born as Marya Sklodowska in Warsaw Poland in 1867, she migrated to Paris for her studies, when she was 24. By 1894, she had graduated twice, in physics as well as mathematics. This is when she came to know Pierre Curie, a fellow scientist. Marya had cold-shouldered his first proposal for a marriage, and had returned to Warsaw. She was denied an academic position at a university in Poland due to her gender. Pierre convinced her to return to Paris, to continue their work. Eventually Pierre and Marya got married in July of 1895. In December of the same year, Roengten – a German scientist discovered first of the invisible rays – the X-rays. Meanwhile “Marya” or “Maria” became “Marie” in French.

A devotion to science

In 1896, a French physicist Henry Becquerel discovered that like X-rays, Uranium also emits invisible rays. However, unlike X-rays these invisible rays could be deflected by electrical or magnetic fields. Marie chose to study Bacquerel’s effect and voltage generated by uranium crystals for her doctoral thesis. About 15 years earlier, Pierre Curie and his brother Jacques had invented an electrometer. This instrument could measure small electrical currents, and Marie calibrated this instrument further. This iconic electrometer features in various postage postage stamps.

Her work on uranium, led her to discover some other elements, that were even more radioactive. In 1898, she discovered a radioactive substance, similar to Bismuth. Marie and Pierre named it Polonium, after her birth country Poland. In the same year, she discovered another substance that was similar to Barium. This was the famous “Radium”. By 1902, they could isolate radium and extract it in a pure form. A new element was born. This was also the time, the Curies started getting exposed to hazards of radiation.

From Radiation to Radiotherapy

In 1903, Henry Bacquerel, Pierre and Marie Curie shared Nobel prize in Physics for their studies on radioactivity. In the same year, Marie also completed her doctorate. Pierre died in 1906, in an accident that involved a horse drawn carriage. Marie, though devastated by the loss, continued in academia. She was awarded another Nobel prize in Chemistry in 1911, for devising ways to measure radioactivity. Thus she received Nobel Prize twice, in 1903 and 1911. Only four scientists share this dual-nobel feat till date (Curie, Pauling, Bardeen and Sanger)

Marie succeeded Pierre as a Professor in Sorbonne research University in Paris. She established research laboratories to study effects and uses of radioactivity. Today we know these facilities as Curie institute (previously radium institute). In course of their research, she discovered that radium destroyed diseased cells, faster than normal cells. This discovery promoted radium to be used for treatment of cancers.

Radiotherapy comes of age

Single large dose of X-rays was the first use of radiation therapy. This treatment was at best palliative, but demonstrated that cancers cells are destroyed by these invisible rays. Later with discovery of radium, we started using radiation beams for both superficial and deep cancers. Till 1930s, there was no sure way of measuring radiation dose, and the development of radiotherapy was more of a trial and error.

None-the-less, these pioneering developments took place during the life time of Marie Curie. A few years before her death, Marie was detected to have Aplastic Anemia, a condition that occurred due to radiation exposure. Pre-1935 era is also described as a time for radiation-quackery, when a variety of radium based radiation treatments were used and later discarded.

After initial trials and errors, radiotherapy came of age in 1950s. Initially with Cobalt-based linear accelerators, and thereafter with Proton beam therapy. Today, we are able to deliver even more precise radiation dosages with CRT or conformal radiation therapy. Radiation beams are also used to do precise surgeries, such as gamma knife.

Legacy of the Curies

If Marie Curie’s double-Nobel and Pierre and Marie’s spouse Nobel were not enough, there was more in store. Irene, born in 1897 was first child of Marie and Pierre. She initially trained as a nurse-radiographer before doing her doctorate. Frédéric Joliot was a physicist and worked as an assistant with Marie Curie. He fell in love with Marie’s daughter Irene, and both got married in 1926. Frederic and Irene chose a common surname Joliot-Curie. After her marriage with Frederic, both became engrossed in radioactivity related research.

In 1933, Irene and Frederick reported that it was possible to bombard a nucleus of an element, and release protons from it. Thus, it was possible to alter its atomic-mass, that was initially considered as a fixed entity. Next year in 1934, they could demonstrate that it was possible to change one element from another. They could create Nitrogen from Boron. Next year, in 1935 Frederick and Irene earned a Chemistry Nobel. Thus, they became the second couple in history to be awarded a joint-Nobel. Marie and Irene are only mother-daughter Nobel Laureate duo till date.

Irene died in 1956, and she had Acute Leukemia. Like her mother, this was also due to exposure to radiation. Frederick died two years later in 1958 due to Liver disease, also attributed to radiation. Both Irene and Frederick were anti-nuclear and peace activists.