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Hello, in 1903, thanks to her work on radio activity, Mary Curie became the first woman to

a Nobel Prize, sharing it with her husband Pierre and with Henry Beckerel.

Mary went on to become the first person to win two Nobel Prizes and is still the only

person to win Nobel's for both physics and chemistry. In the 1930s, the Curie's older daughter

Irene won a further Nobel Prize for the family and her husband.

She won it with her husband.

Also for chemistry, for their discovery that it was possible to create radioactive material in

the laboratory.

A manicure is extraordinary career also included doing x-ray or driving x-ray

laboratories around the Western Front during the First World War.

The work of the curries, including their discovery of radium, added immensely to our

knowledge of fundamental physics and paved the way for modern treatments for cancer.

We'd me to discuss principally Mary Curie, our Patricia Fara, senior tutor of Claire College Cambridge, Stephen

Bramwell Professor of Physics at University College London and Robert Fox,

emeritus Professor of the History of Science at the University of Oxford.

Pritchefara, what were the most significant scientific developments

towards the end of the 19th century

that, as it were, worked towards what Mary Curie did?

Well, the most immediate developments were the discoveries of x-rays by Rompkin and I think the fact that he called it X-rays

indicates the extreme confusion and bewilderment that everyone was feeling at the time.

...