Marie Curie was a double Nobel-prize winning scientist who literally died for her work.
Pages from one of Marie Curie's notebooks. Image source
A job to die for
In order to page through one of Marie Curie's notebooks in France's Bibliotheque National, you would have to don heavy anti-radiation protective gear. And sign a waiver of liability.
Yes, the books that contain all the brilliant scientist's notes on radiation are themselves dangerously radioactive, more than a century since they were written. And that goes for most of her other stuff too, such as her papers, furniture and even cookbooks—all awash in ionizing radiation.
Not to mention Marie Curie herself who is entombed in an inch-thick lead-lined coffin in France’s Panthéon.
And it will stay that way for a long, long time—the most common isotope of radium, radium-226, has a half-life of 1,601 years.
Marie and Pierre Curie in their laboratory. Image source
Glowing in the dark
Marie Curie made some of the most significant contributions to science in the 20th century. She is the first and only woman to win a Nobel Prize in two different fields (physics and chemistry). She and her French physicist husband, Pierre Curie, discovered a new radioactive element in 1898. The duo named the element polonium, after Poland, Marie’s native country.
Her death was from aplastic anaemia, a rare condition linked to high levels of exposure to the radioactive elements polonium and radium.
Marie Curie walked around with bottles of polonium and radium in her pockets all the time and kept capsules full of the deadly elements on her shelf. Historian Philipp Blom quotes Marie Curie's autobiographical notes, in which she describes the mysterious blue-green lights in her lab:
One of our joys was to go into our workroom at night; we then perceived on all sides the feebly luminous silhouettes of the bottles of capsules containing our products. It was really a lovely sight and one always new to us. The glowing tubes looked like faint, fairy lights.
At the time, the strength of the radiation was seen to be beneficial. After observing burns on his arms—after wearing a chunk of radium on it for 10 hours—Pierre concluded that he had discovered a cure for cancer.
Marie Curie coined the term “radioactive”. Image source
Radioactive elements were put in all sorts of products, from toothpaste and laxatives containing thorium to radium bath salts claimed to treat insomnia. Radon and uranium were used to line ceramic drinking vessels, and prescribed for flatulence, among other ailments.
It wasn't until 1938 that radioactive products were banned in the US.
References:
Christian Science Monitor: Marie Curie: Why her papers are still radioactive
Science Alert: Marie Curie's Belongings Will Be Radioactive For Another 1,500 Years
Gizmodo: Marie Curie's century-old radioactive notebook still requires lead box
Business Insider: Personal effects of 'the mother of modern physics'will be radioactive for another 1500 years
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