Anonymous
Not logged in
Talk
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Search
Editing
Marie Curie
From MEpedia, a crowd-sourced encyclopedia of ME and CFS science and history
Namespaces
Page
Discussion
More
More
Page actions
Read
Edit
Edit source
History
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
'''Marie Curie''' or '''Maria Sklodowska''' (1867-1934) was a scientist who won [[Nobel Prize]]s in both physics (1903) and chemistry (1911).<ref name="nobel">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1903/marie-curie/biographical/ | title = The Nobel Prize in Physics 1903 | website = NobelPrize.org|language=en-US|access-date=2019-01-18}}</ref> == Early life == Marie Curie was born Maria Sklodowska in Warsaw, [[Poland]], on November 7, 1867.<ref name="nobel" /> She grew up in Russian-occupied Poland, the daughter of a secondary school teacher who had politically displeased the Russians in control.<ref name="Curie"/> Both her mother and a sister died within two years of each other. She graduated from school at 15, at the top of her class, but fell ill and spent a year in the countryside recovering.<ref name="A-Life" /> Curie began her studies in Warsaw and became part of the student activism there, but soon moved to Krakow, then Paris.<ref name="nobel" /> She continued her studies at the Sorbonne, earning degrees in physics and the mathematical sciences.<ref name="nobel" /> While studying at the Sorbonne in 1894, she met her eventual husband, Pierre Curie, who was then a professor in the School of Physics.<ref name="nobel" /> ==Illness == At age 15, having just graduated top of the class from her school, where she was taught in Russian and Polish was banned, she became ill with "fatigue", and was sent to her Uncle's home to recover in the countryside.<ref name="Curie">{{Cite book | title = Curie|isbn=978-1-904341-29-1|language=en | url =https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=43hsda5Sm6UC&lpg=PA59&pg=PA4#v=onepage | date = 2003 | publisher=Haus Publishing|last = Dry|first = Sarah | last2 = Seifert | first2 = Sabine}}</ref><ref name="A-Life">{{Cite book | title = Marie Curie: A Life|language=en | url =https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=WV2mDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT40&hl=en&sa=X#v=onepage | date = 2019-07-31|publisher=Plunkett Lake Press|last = Quinn | first = Susan}}</ref><ref name="Competence">{{Cite book | title = The Cost of Competence: Why Inequality Causes Depression, Eating Disorders, and Illness in Women|isbn=978-0-19-802344-9|language=en | url =https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=D4BdvAWOmCcC&pg=PA212&hl=en#v=onepage | date = 1995-08-17|publisher=Oxford University Press|last = Silverstein | first = Brett | last2 = Perlick | first2 = Deborah}}</ref> ===Collapsed due to fatigue=== Curie's studies were not affected by the death of her sister Zosia when she was nine, or her mother's death two years after, but on graduating school at 15 she was described as having "collapsed due to fatigue":<ref name="Curie" /> {{Quote|She refused to get out of bed and ate little. Instead, she wallowed in a dark room all day. Finally, Wladyslaw became worried about her. He decided to send her to live with relatives in the country. It turned out to be a magnificent decision. She began what would become the happiest, most perfect year of her life... she quickly regained her health and good spirits. She put aside her science books and read novels. She fished and picked wild strawberries with her cousins. They took long hikes, rolled hoops, and played games like tag and shuttlecock.<ref name="Great-Scientists">{{Cite book | title = Great Scientists| date = 2012 |isbn=978-81-223-1286-7|language=en | url =https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=o91dd5SQL9QC&pg=PT132&hl=en#v=onepage | first = Pustak |last = Mahal}}</ref>|source=Great Scientists (2012}} Curie herself wrote that her illness was caused by "the fatigue of growth and study". Her daughter Eve's biography states: "In the course of the mysterious passage called adolescence, while her body was transformed and her face grew finer, Manya [Marie's nickname] suddenly became lazy."<ref name="Competence" /> Another biography, by a "disinterested observer" states that she a history of anxiety, depression, and other nervous problems starting in her teenage years, and that doctors diagnosed her as suffering a "nervous breakdown."<ref name="Competence" /> ===Break from studying=== While recovering in the countryside, Marie Curie stopped all studying and intellectual pursuits, even giving up embroidery. It is not clear why, or if this was a result of [[cognitive dysfunction]] or [[concentration problems]] caused by her illness. She did not see this as negative, so so it may have been a choice rather than a sign of illness. {{cquote|text="I can't believe geometry or algebra ever existed. I have completely forgotten them," she writes,"... aside from an hour's French lesson with a little boy I don't do a thing, positively not a thing β for I have even abandoned the piece of embroidery that I had started... I have no schedule. I get up sometimes at ten o'clock, sometimes at four or five (morning, not evening!). I read no serious books, only harmless and absurd little novels... <br>Thus, in spite of the diploma conferring on me the dignity and maturity of a person who has finished her studies, I feel incredibly stupid. Sometimes I laugh all by myself, and I contemplate my state of total stupidity with genuine satisfaction."<ref name="A-Life"/> | author = Susan Quinn|source=Marie Curie: A Life | date = 2009}} ==ME/CFS == It is possible that Marie Curie suffered from [[chronic fatigue syndrome]], but it has also been suggested that the symptoms were [[depression]], possibly as a result of her mother's and sister's deaths, a "nervous breakdown", or [[exhaustion]]. == Career == == Death == Curie died July 4, 1934 in Savoy, France, following a brief illness.<ref name="nobel" /> She died from aplastic anemia, which may have been a result of leukemia caused by radiation exposure during her research.<ref>{{Cite book | title = Handbook of Forensic Sociology and Psychology|isbn=978-1-4614-7178-3|language=en | url =https://books.google.com/books?id=cN-5BAAAQBAJ&pg=PA285&hl=en&sa=#v=onepage&q&f=false | date = 2013-08-20|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|last = Morewitz|first = Stephen J. | last2 = Goldstein | first2 = Mark L.}}</ref> ==References== {{reflist}} [[Category:Famous people with ME, CFS, and/or FMS]] [[Category:French famous people with ME, CFS, and/or FMS]] [[Category:Polish famous people with ME, CFS, and/or FMS]] [[Category:People with ME, CFS, and/or FMS]] [[Category:Deceased people with ME, CFS, and/or FMS]]
Summary:
Please make sure your edits are consistent with
MEpedia's guidelines
.
By saving changes, you agree to the
Terms of use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 3.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)
Templates used on this page:
Template:Cite book
(
edit
)
Template:Cite web
(
edit
)
Template:Comma separated entries
(
edit
)
Template:Cquote
(
edit
)
Template:If empty
(
edit
)
Template:Main other
(
edit
)
Template:Quote
(
edit
)
Template:Reflist
(
edit
)
Module:Arguments
(
edit
)
Module:Check for unknown parameters
(
edit
)
Module:Citation/CS1
(
edit
)
Module:Citation/CS1/COinS
(
edit
)
Module:Citation/CS1/Configuration
(
edit
)
Module:Citation/CS1/Date validation
(
edit
)
Module:Citation/CS1/Identifiers
(
edit
)
Module:Citation/CS1/Utilities
(
edit
)
Module:Citation/CS1/Whitelist
(
edit
)
Module:If empty
(
edit
)
Module:No globals
(
edit
)
Module:Separated entries
(
edit
)
Module:TableTools
(
edit
)
Navigation
Navigation
Skip to content
Main page
Browse
Become an editor
Random page
Popular pages
Abbreviations
Glossary
About MEpedia
Links for editors
Contents
Guidelines
Recent changes
Pages in need
Search
Help
Wiki tools
Wiki tools
Special pages
Page tools
Page tools
User page tools
More
What links here
Related changes
Page information
Page logs