Online search giant Google celebrates the 144th birth anniversary of physicist-chemist Marie Curie with the company’s patented Google Doodle. Today, the site’s visitors will see a doodle of Marie Curie sitting with her laboratory apparatus.
When users click on the doodle, they will land on a Google search results page of Marie Curie, including those on NobelPrize.org and Wikipedia.
History
Curie was born in Warsaw, Poland on November 7, 1867. She received education in local schools, and she received scientific training from her father. She moved to Paris 24 years later to pursue her studies in physics and mathematics at the Sorbonne.
Curie, alongside her husband Pierre, was credited with the discovery of radium and polonium. Polonium was named after her birth country. In 1903, the Marie and Pierre Curie were awarded the Nobel Prize for physics, with Henri Becquerel, the man responsible for the discovery of radioactivity.
Marie Curie promoted the use of the element radium for therapeutic use. During World War I, she helped develop mobile X-ray units to aid injured soldiers. She toured Paris gathering supplies, money and vehicles, as the director of the radiological service of Red Cross.
Marie Curie received her second Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1911.
She died on July 4, 1934 due to pernicious anemia, which was developed through years of radiation exposure. Her most notable achievements include techniques for isolating radioactive isotopes, a theory of radioactivity and the discovery of radium and polonium. She was an avid researcher and teacher. Under her tight supervision, the first studies into the use of radioactive isotopes to the treatment of neoplasms were conducted.
What do you think of today’s Google Doodle?
