Marie Curie refused to make an intellectual property claim over the discovery of radium. It is a natural radioactive decay product of uranium. She was interested in Becquerel's work, which noted that uranium gave off rays that could penetrate objects but provided no explanation for why that occurred. In her words, “Radium is an element, it belongs to the people.”

Introduction. She went on to win a second Nobel Prize in 1911; this time in chemistry, for successfully managing to isolate radium through electrolysis of radium chloride.

Marie Curie discovered two new elements of the periodic table (polonium and radium) and conducted extensive research on radioactivity. Marie Curie also said, “Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Radium has been around since long before the Earth was ever formed.

— Marie Curie. Instead, she and Pierre made their research open to other scholars and producers. How and When Did Marie Curie Die? This Nobel Prize was a big deal because Marie Curie had just become the very first female Nobel Prize winner. Marie Curie deceased in 1934 victim of leukemia caused by the exposure to ionizing radiation for many years. Even during the “Radium Boom” of the 1920s—when a single gram of radium cost $100,000—Marie had zero regrets about her open-access approach to science. Learn more about Marie Curie in this article.

Marie Curie's discovery of radium and another element, polonium, was a long process that she undertook with her husband, Pierre. Francium, element 87, is named for France, site of the Curie Institute where it was discovered. Marie and Pierre Curie isolate radium On April 20, 1902, Marie and Pierre Curie successfully isolate radioactive radium salts from the mineral pitchblende in their laboratory in Paris. Also in that same year, Marie Curie officially earned her Doctorate in physics. Instead, she and Pierre made their research open to other scholars and producers. Answer: Marie Curie died on 4 July 1934, in Savoy, France.

She was the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize. Marie Curie is remembered for her discovery of radium and polonium, and her huge contribution to finding treatments for cancer. She died of aplastic anaemia, a blood disease that often results from exposure to large amounts of radiation. This work continues to inspire our charity's mission to help people and their families living with a terminal illness make the most of the time they have together by delivering expert care, emotional support and research. On this day in history, 1898, Marie and Pierre Curie discovered the radioactive element radium (in the form of radium chloride), extracting it from uraninite.They first removed the uranium from the uraninite sample and then found that the remaining matter was still radioactive, so investigated further. ... Marie Curie was a Pole, who started life in Warsaw as Maria Sklodowska in 1867, the daughter of a teacher of maths and physics.