Science is adorable

[Little Star]

4. Maria Sklodowska-Curie was a famous scientist who won the Nobel award twice.

Maria/Manya Sklodowska (Marie Curie)

The Sklodowski Children (left to right) Zosia, Hela, Manya (the youngest), Joseph, and Bronya

Maria (Mania) was born November 7, 1867 in Warsaw to Bronislawa and Wladyslaw Sklodowski. Her both parents were well educated. This was not long after November Uprising of 1963 in which Poles fought for the independence from the Russian tzar and Russian empire rule. Maria was the youngest from five children having one brother and three sisters. Maria's mother - Bronislawa, maiden name, Boguska, was of noble birth. Felix Boguski, her grandfather owned some land, but in order to provide for his family he had to administer the lands of richer aristocrats since their own land was not big enough. Bronislawa received a good education in a private school for women and then became a professor and later a director of the same school for girls.

Wladislaw Sklodowski, Maria's father, was also a part of minor noble family that originally owned land in a village Sklody, about a hundred km North from Warsaw. Wladislaw was the first intellectual in his family. He went to study in St. Petersburg and then came back to teach mathematics and physics in Warsaw.

Maria's mother showed the signs of tuberculosis, a deadly disease in these times, shortly after Mania was born. In order not to infect her children, her only love gesture towards Mania, her youngest daughter, was to run her fingers over Mania forehead. Mania never remembers being kissed by her mother, although this is sad, it helped to save her life. According to the doctor advice, Bronislawa was sent to Austrian Alps and later to Nice. Since Sklodowski's could not afford the nurse, Zosia, the oldest daughter accompanied her mother in these travels. In that time Wladyslaw, Maria's father took care of the younger children.

http://www.polishsite.us/index.php/history-and-people/modern-history/476-maria-sklodowska-marie-curie-real-life.html