QUOTING ON QUOTES: Life is not easy for any

QUOTING ON QUOTES … “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 that this thing must be attained.” – Marie Sklodowska, Polish/French physicist/chemist (1867 – 1934) … Marie Curie is my best female scientist … The polish daughter of a Physics/Maths teacher decided to follow her brother and older sister to study in France instead of attending a Russian university. (Russia was “ruling” Poland in those days.) At Sorbonne (the top school in France), she studied Science. As a self-sponsored student, she had barely enough to eat and study. She was so pale and at times she stuffed her shoes with papers when they were worn old and she could not afford new ones. But at the end of each semester, Marie Sklodowska, the thin, frail-looking Polish student was either the top/or near the top of all her Maths and Science courses. In future years she would meet Pierre Curie, an already famous French Physicist, and they got married. Marie is the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. She won it in Physics 1903 along with husband Pierre and Henry Becquerel for their pioneer work in Radioactivity. She discovered two radioactive chemical elements – Radium and Polonium - and in 1911, she won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for isolating those two substances and advancing science. Marie had two daughters – one (Irène) took after her and become a scientist/nuclear chemist, and won a Nobel Prize too. The other Ève became a writer/journalist/pianist and wrote a book about her famous mother. (Today the Curie family is made up of many scientists. And they head the top boards in science and other fields in France.). I think the quote above summarizes Marie’s life fairly well. (Picture from aip.org) … Watch for other QUOTING ON QUOTES to be posted later …