Marie Curie: Great Minds

Hank tells us the story of his favorite genius lady scientist and radioactive superhero, Marie Curie.
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This episode was written by Jesslyn Shields.
The video also contains music by Kevin MacLeod from incompetech.com.
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Sources:
www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prize...
www.hypatiamaze.org/marie/c_bi...
inventors.about.com/library/in...
myhero.com/go/hero.asp?hero=ma...
www.radiochemistry.org/nuclear...
www.telegraph.co.uk/science/sc...
tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Cu...
www.badassoftheweek.com/curie....
www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/201...

[@sareinhart]

OK. So. I knew that Marie Curie was pretty awesome. I didn't know she was THIS awesome. Amazing.

[@stiefmegan]

It kinda makes sense, looking back, for her to keep working with radioactive stuff, even after it became obvious it was not good for the body. I mean, at that point, she probably would have died from it anyway, and if she hadn't been a selfless, unstoppable work horse and quit, leaving the task to someone else, that person probably also would have died from radio activity also. So not only did her discoveries benefit human kind, just the fact that she saw it through to the end probably saved some lives.

[@Svensk7119]

"Greater love hath no man than this, that he lay his life down for his friends." She fits this.

[@robertdunhamjr.7712]

Marie Curie, homegrown radioactive superhero of the ages.

[@pyasta1]

What a great video about an astonishing woman! Not to belittle the work as a whole, but I was especially touched by your very sensitive and informed comments about her Polish roots. And the piecing up of Poland was very much like pizza in a frat house, you're right.This is so cheesy of me, but I actually teared up a little when I realised while watching. Polish people don't come up a lot in media and it was really a nice feeling to be proud of a home girl. Thank you to the whole team for that!

[@petertimowreef9085]

Melting down nobel prices for something useful.. That is the most badass thing. The doorknob and the back of her chair in the office next to her lab are also still radio-active, she'd come out of the lab, close the door and drag the chair back to sit down.

[@stevetheslothsloth7785]

as a pole i love when non polish people try to say polish names like Skłodowska

[@marksusskind1260]

Ohai, squaw-dovska!

[@victoriawrembel]

omg Zgadzam się, jakby to było przezabawne

[@jessicaevans7847]

Tetherball? Phone? North? Hehehehe pole.

[@magnetwhisperer]

Bring this kind of humor back to SciShow! Thoroughly entertained by this oldie.

[@WolFire1234]

Best. Science. Couple. Ever.

[@saracathcart9955]

"Whoooaaa I'm, whoooaaa I'm, radioactive! Radioactive!"

[@sprink2006]

Thank you for doing this awesome video on Marie Curie! She is definitely a hero of mine. I've also written 3 biographies about her for school so I feel qualified to say you did a great job! Thank you for all the amazing videos!

[@hk47xhk47x]

Dear hank. I just want to say that i saw this episode playing on a public TV at the library at Virginia Tech. You are truly a great teacher.

[@camriarnr]

I love this video so much. Keep coming back to watch it, to remember some of the info. It's just a lot more fun than reading it!

[@MortsMaisVivant]

This video actually inspired me to write my senior project research paper on Marie Curie, and I've learned some seriously fascinating stuff. She is seriously like the coolest lady ever

[@lindasek1206]

What I always found fascinating is that she worked with radiation without any protection when pregnant with both of her kids - they were born healthy, had normal intelligence and lived an average lifespan. And she herself lived really long when we take into consideration her exposure. Good genes?

[@debopamseal1072]

+Linda Sliwicka Not to mention, one of her children won the Nobel Prize, it must be good genes!

[@Stricken-Zero]

I say it's the genes

[@mrs.garcia6978]

Her daughter that won the NP died of leukemia before 60 yo. Cancer of the blood.

[@OPerator950]

First of all: I love your videos. I'm going to write germany's highest school exams this month. I write it in physics, maths and chemistry (you can choose it) because I learned so much from you and other scientific KZbin-channels. Scishow is the best that ever happend to me, I truly love you from the bottom of my heart.Science is the greatest thing on earth. I will always cheer those scientists who make the world think new. THANK YOU, SCISHOW and the other SCIENCE channels for helping me

[@jcbacardi]

I love how you guys are making science so current and so.... Young! Well done guys!

[@teaver]

I wish my science teacher was so cool talking about her. :) She was regarded as more of a saint then a superhero. But yeah, there used to be a picture of Marie Curie in every physics classroom. I guess it still is. :)

[@Aussie50]

I named my puppy Curie in memory of Marie Curie, I hope she grows up to be just as smart ;)

[@Jerricawhite89]

I really love how excited Hank gets during these videos. He takes something I already find interesting and makes it fun. Hank, you are a fantastic teacher.

[@MonkeyspankO]

awesome presentation of a great scientist! Keep it coming!

[@PriyaSingh-mz3to]

you should talk about Ramanujan, indian mathematician who died of young and could not achieve something very awesome but was definitely a genius.

[@LtexprsGaming]

I would really love to see a great minds video on you, Hank.

[@voldlifilm]

Wow. Another great episode. And by zod what a scientist she was! Keep up the great show guys!

[@idunnyr]

perfect timing! I'm writing a paper on Marie Curie that I was going to start researching for tomorrow, now you've given me a list of references to check out and given me tons of information! Thank you Hank! Thank you sci show! I'll be sure to put you on my list of references!

[@osoba_brodoklesowa]

Dear Hank, I cannot be 100% certain due to incomplete data (which I'm probably never going to collect because, you know, KZbin), but I'm willing to bet my money and my future degree that from what I've heard so far your pronunciation of Polish is the best among non-Polish KZbinrs. (Please note that I am not only a native speaker of Polish totally psyched about someone finally pronouncing right, I am also third year into linguistics, so you bet I know my sounds). Put that in your CV, Polish is (at least as for now) the most difficult language on planet Earth. Cheers mate! :)

[@ionaleavitt4904]

I go to a girls school and our seven house's are named after bad-ass women though out history and I'm in the house name CURIE after someone I'm going to assume you know of. So it was nice to find out some more about her amazing lifetime and her contributions to the science community.

[@maiguech87]

Omg your school seems so school, I wish I went to a all girls school

[@BeckyMorales]

So cool! What are the other houses named?

[@johnmartin650]

Marie curie was just her husbands lab assistant. Pierre Curie was the badass. I'd live to know who the other badass women are because in all of history I cant think of a single one.

[@trinix777]

Fascination, such dedication. Respect earned.

[@skyblazer7]

I love that photograph of the 1911 conference where she's sitting there with Bohr, and Einstein, and Rutherford, and Schrödinger all the rest. It was like the Justice League of Science!

[@vijayahuman6708]

hey SciShow, please do a #GreatMinds for 'Srinivas Ramanujan'...(he was a mathematician..) and for Bernhard Riemann too.....(same again a mathematician..)

[@muralibhat8776]

agreed

[@atrumluminarium]

Riemann was awesome

[@bikkikumarsha]

i second that!!!

[@callmelimitbreaker]

How about making a modern-day adaptation of Marie Curie's story? :D

[@vickypedias]

hank makes this entire channel

[@Onami3]

Yes! I love Marie Curie, so it's great hearing you talk about her.

[@janmarkiewicz6246]

The Palaca of Culture in Warsaw didn't exist during her life. It was built by the Soviets, so i don't think putting it 1:44 is proper. Nice vid btw.

[@howtoletsplayccrs]

"Mercury I carry"

[@sarahmorsy3946]

Your work is awesome :)

[@audrey1053]

Thanks for this!

[@misterkefir]

at 1:49 the in the background, the first two buildings from the left are from Krakow and Wroclaw, not Warsaw.. (only the 3rd is from Warsaw, and it's a 20th century communist monument) :P

[@Tanktok]

Badass cougar!

[@aModernDandy]

I'm so glad you talked about Marie Curie!

[@tobinweightcarter8258]

Fantastic video!

[@rainydaylady6596]

I tried to go to get more info. per the description but ended up at an Instagram page. Any chance of getting the correct website?

[@jessicaevans7847]

Why can't we get puppet shows anymore?

[@TilekMamutov]

I think it's one of the best videos to get kids interested in science! Fantastic job, Hank!

[@42oomfoofoo]

Thanks Hank this video really helped my project on Marie Curie!

[@dargon1084]

Curiosity brought me here

[@charliealexander1924]

You should do: Isaac Newton Obviously one of the greatest minds ever, his friend simply asked a question to which he invented calculus to answer it, invented laws of gravity diffracted light, among other things, then turned 26 (I believe). Awesome. OR Galileo You have the whole threatened to be tortured by catholic church thing, and well as science illuminati/cult among other things

[@cucumberplant]

Thank you so much for featuring a lady scientist! More lady scientists!

[@GuitarAudiologist]

I love this show! Please make at least a hundred thousand more episodes of Scishow. Thanks :)

[@KajuneK8]

You now that her real name was Maria Sklodowaka-Curie, don't you?

[@thebiggestcauldron]

He mentioned that. And also he said some really cool stuff about history of Poland.

[@KajuneK8]

Tomasz Rajek I know, but the title of the video is wrong.

[@thebiggestcauldron]

KajuneK8 Yes, but the image is correct. I forgive.

[@KajuneK8]

Tomasz Rajek I agree that the image is correct, but without pointing out the title they may make the same mistake again.

[@coachmcguirk6297]

who cares about the maiden name?

[@mr.esvlogs4055]

give thumbs up, if you think this woman was DOPE!

[@EmiliaNobrega]

I was so excited that you did Marie curie! When I was in 5th grade I did a project on her and I had a vial of "radioactive" material (a glow stick) with me as well! Good job overall :)

[@kiwipamplemousse]

great show!

[@jordanwademeier]

Oh yeah, and Marie Curie was also an Atheist.

[@dargon1084]

So what? Smart and influential people can believe or not believe in anything they want. Is her being an atheist better than an agnostic or someone who believes in something else. Lets judge people by their merit not by what they believe

[@jordanwademeier]

***** That's my whole point...

[@dargon1084]

Jordan Meier Sure it is...

[@jordanwademeier]

***** I was trying to highlight that there is a stigma against atheists. I am myself an atheist.

[@dargon1084]

I think there is a bigger stigma in being religious nowadays. You should feel proud and safe as an atheist, most of the time religious people are the ones being stigmatized more

[@sson386]

You forgot to mention that she said the unit Curie should measure large amount of activity, because a Curie being named for some infinitesimally small number is inappropriate. Now that's bad ass.

[@antonevan443]

Wow never thought of it this way. Now I can accept in peace Becquerel being used for the SI of radiation unit lol

[@gorillasapien]

Wow, you guys are definitely not forgetting to be awesome, keep up the good works.

[@SailorCanisMajoris]

Skł (like alene) o (like cld) dow (e) ska (r). If anyone was curious, how to really pronounce it. Sorry xD

[@berlineczka]

There is one more badass thing she did: she donated most of her grants into research institutes, among which the two Radium Institutes are the most known. The first one was opened in Paris, that turned out to be the place where she, and most of her and Pierre's students (including her daugther and son-in-law, both future Nobel prize laureates) actually established radioactivity research as a branch of science. The second one was opened in Warsaw after Poland regained independence, and - being run by her sister Bronislawa, a physician - specialized in using radiation for medical purposes. Today this institute is still the leading Polish institution for oncology en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curie_Institute,_Warsaw

[@willmanley922]

Why have you not done Charles Darwin yet ?

[@ChanelCoco555]

Awesome video! Respect for Marie Curie :)

[@NotHookedOnUrPhonics]

I'm doing a research paper about her for my French language class- this really helped! Thanks Hank + Sci Show! :)

[@jovesun8303]

RADIOACTIVE!? CHECK AND MATE!

[@JAMIESOKLUG]

At the beginning, he was like Marie Curie has superpowers im Like: Yeah.... The super power to have almost every pore in her body bleed and the power to have had an extremely painful life and death....

[@haloonek26]

Well she lived for over 35 years after discovering polonium,exposed to high volumes of radiation during her research, she survived on the fronts of First World War X-raying casualties (and being exposed to radiation and bullets flying over her head). She died in the age of 66. If you ask me she had a superpower of dying hard, that's for sure.

[@sittingonanmm]

I am so loving these Great Mind segments, Hank! :)

[@Wolflover16DFTBA]

I love all your new finger puppets! They rock!

[@MntRprznt]

Who's Marie Curie? Is that Maria Skłodowska-Curie? Why are the French changing her first name, and removing the maiden part of surname? Come on - you're not changing the names of African "doctors and engineers" that move to France...

[@wolfdog3226]

M3nt2 R3pr3z3nt what are u trying to say

[@kkknotcool]

I like Marie Curie but the way she gets attention is very sexist. Pierre is always a footnote when THEIR work is talked about and she is given an almost saint like position in science mostly due to her sex. We are doing exactly to Pierre what people did to Marie when she was alive and its no less wrong.

[@muraz4ki]

That's totally untrue. Everytime we talk about the discoveries of the couple, we always quote them as "Pierre & Marie Curie". Also, I'm pretty sure Pierre would be happy to know her beloved wife had the attention she deserved.

[@kkknotcool]

Mehdi Zakaria Benadel Why does sci show not have a video about Pierre if they are treated as equals? Also its not about if they would be happy that the other got the attention, I'm sure they were both nice and good people who would love to see their spouse succeed.(all we can do is try and treat them as equals)

[@muraz4ki]

Obviously it's because Marie's life is incredible, and it covers an important part of Pierre's life.

[@kkknotcool]

Mehdi Zakaria Benadel So do you think it was right for Pierre to get most of the attention for their work when it first came out?

[@oddball_oddity]

Absolutely untrue... Marie was all the more subjugated because of her gender. The Academy of Science in Paris would not even stoop so low as to admit a female, and it was with only painstaking deliberation that she was granted her professorship in Sorbonne and such. But it's true that she achieved greater posthumous reputation because, let's face it, Pierre died quite early and it fell on her to augment and establish their research :-)

[@Dregoro]

This was great!

[@ciredrojdyr]

Tesla and Feynman. I love your work and watch most of your commercials, an electric mix. keep up the good work(applied energy).

[@brpadali]

best marie curie's video ever!

[@juliap4204]

thanks very much Marie Curie is truly amazing!!!!! ;)

[@nicolekuros9811]

thank you for this video she really is an icon

[@infxmhc]

gotta thumb this up. Such a funny and informative video.

[@Zeyev]

Wonderful!

[@CarlyMFriesen]

I'm going to see the Marie Curie Museum in Paris this weekend! Had to brush up on my knowledge, so I watched this again!

[@1RandomTalks]

MY GOD, WHERE HAS THIS CHANNEL BEEN ALL MY LIFE?

[@aabigailll]

I nominated Marie Curie for Prom Queen at my school. And then I saw this video and basked in the glory of what a good nomination that was.

[@duboischarlotte5523]

OOOOOOH ! I wouuuuld LOOOOVE to have that kind of love story !! and the nobel prizes too LoL !

[@FaysalAndary]

the puppet show was amazing, thank you.

[@aVeganFeminist]

Yay Marie Curie! Great video.

[@freezinganimenz7835]

wow, this video is helping me bout radio activity and now i have an example of a radio active person.

[@DarnDatDiddy]

Nice show! Giving credit where credit is owed.

[@braininavat314]

This video made me really happy, especially as a Pole. One small comment: Marie Curie's Polish name actually had an "a" at the end ("Maria"), and her last name was "Skłodowska", where the "ł" makes a sound like the English "w".

[@carlitosvodka]

great video!

[@RaiMidori]

Oh my goodness, how cool is she?!?

[@bridgedudette]

Awesome for my science assignment. :D Thanks Hank :3

[@artdeco6t6]

Wow this one is so old! Scishow has grown so much.

[@thevampirefrog06]

Those finger puppets are the best! I own Einstein myself. Also, Marie Curie was truly the greatest. Thank you for telling us more about her.

[@BlueBlackRed009]

I did a presentation on Marie Curie when I was in second grade! It was great.

[@speedycomputer]

I was just about to suggest this! DO IT HANK :)

[@nerdra]

I was Marie Curie for my sixth grade wax museum project. I feel residually awesome. :) Also, Science Love is the best love. Yay for Marie & Pierre and Irene & Whatsisface!

[@amsbarreira]

The best scishow ever

[@youfrancis]

I love the puppets. Best video yet! :D

[@whitehorsept]

check mate indeed. Thanks for this video!

[@ItalianLightning]

one of my favourite epsisodes

[@TheIngiePingie]

love how marie was speaking in an american accent even though she was polish but pierre had a french accent because he was french

[@pigeonqueeen]

I admire the fact that you mentioned she was Polish. When I moved to England I have yet to meet someone who doesn't say 'Marie Curie, the French scientist.' There isn't many things I can be proud of when it comes to Poland, so I'm very touchy about the ones I am.

[@rybpo7]

My fave Scishow to date! Thanks, Hank!!

[@BlitzBlu95]

I have a test over nuclear chemistry tomorrow. This is really helping me cement the idea of the units that I use for that chapter & the amazing people behind the concepts I've learnt.

[@cugzarui5568]

awsome!

[@ayyKatx]

OH MY GOD HISTORY DOSE ON SCI SHOW