玛丽·居里大概是有史以来最著名的女科学家，玛丽·居里原名玛丽·斯克沃多夫斯卡，1867年生于渡兰。她以对放射性的研究而闻名，曾两度获得诺贝尔奖。玛丽·居里与她的丈夫皮埃尔·居里和亨利·贝克勒尔共同获得了1903年度诺贝尔物理学奖，并一人独得1911年度诺贝尔化学奖。她是第—个获得诺贝尔奖的女性。

Marie Curie is probably the most famous woman scientist who has ever lived. Born Maria Sklodowska in Poland in 1867, she is famous for her work on radioactivity, and was twice a winner of the Nobel Prize. With her husband, Pierre Curie, and Henri Becquerel, she was awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics, and was then sole winner of the 1911 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.

从童年开始，玛丽就显示出惊人的记忆力。她于16岁时中学毕业并获得了金质奖章。中学毕业后，由于玛丽的父亲投资失败，玛丽被迫开始教书，玛丽以工作所得资助她的姐蛆布洛妮亚在巴黎攻渎医学，因地姐妹二人已有默契布洛妮亚日后会反过来帮助玛丽上学读书。

1891年，布洛妮亚兑现了她对玛丽承诺，玛丽得以求学黎，进入索邦大学(巴黎大学)。玛丽常常工作到深夜，而她几乎只靠面包、黄油和茶度日，1893年玛丽在自然科学考试中取得第—名，1894年她在数学考试中取得第二名，这一年的春天，玛丽结识了皮埃尔·居里。

From childhood, Marie was remarkable for her prodigious memory, and at the age of 16 won a gold medal on completion of her secondary education. Because her father lost his savings through bad investment, she then had to take work as a teacher. From her earnings she was able to finance her sister Bronia's medical studies in Paris, on the understanding that Bronia would, in turn, later help her to get an education.

1895年，玛丽与皮埃尔的联姻标志着—段伟大的合作关系的开始，他们的合作在不久的将来取得了影响世界的成果。1896年亨利·贝勒尔发现了一种新现象，不久后玛丽将这种现象命名为”放射性”。在此之后，玛丽·居里决定研究除了已被发现具有放射性的铀(uranium)以外，是否还有其他元素具有放射性。地发现钍(thodum)具有放射性。

玛丽将注意转向矿物质后，对沥青铀矿产生了兴趣。沥青铀矿(pitchblende)是—种放射性强的矿物质，它的放射性超过了纯铀，而这种强放射性唯—的解释就是矿石中存在少量活动性极高的不明物质。皮埃尔·居里协助玛丽着手解决这一问题，并最终发现了钋(polonium)和镭(radium)这两种新的无素。皮埃尔·居里主要致力于研究新放射物的物理特性，而玛丽·居里则努力获取纯的金属镭。在皮埃尔的掌生——化学家安德烈·路易斯·德比恩的帮助下，玛丽成功分离出了纯的金属镭。玛丽凭借这项研究的成果取得了科学博士学位。1903年，玛丽、皮埃尔和贝克勒尔共同被授予诺贝尔物理学奖以表彰他们发现战射性。

In 1891 this promise was fulfilled and Marie went to Paris and began to study at the Sorbonne (the University of Paris). She often worked far into the night and lived on little more than bread and butter and tea. She came first in the examination in the physical sciences in 1893, and in 1894 was placed second in the examination in mathematical sciences. It was not until the spring of that year that she was introduced to Pierre Curie.

玛丽于1897年诞下长女伊伦，与1904年诞下次女伊笑。然而为人母的玛丽并未停止她的科学工作。玛丽于1900年被任命为巴黎高等师范学院下属塞弗尔好学院的的物理学讲师，她提出了一种以实验展示为基础的教学方法。1904年12月，她被任命为皮埃尔实验室的首席助理。

1906年玛丽的丈夫暴毙，这对玛丽是—个沉重的打击，却也是她事业上的转折点。自此以后，玛丽将自己个人的全部精力投入到她与丈夫未竟的事业中。1906年5月13日，玛丽接替了她丈夫死后空缺的教职，并成为了索邦大学的第—位女救授。1911年，玛丽因分离出了纯的金属镭而被授予诺贝尔化学奖。

Their marriage in 1895 marked the start of a partnership that was soon to achieve results of world significance. Following Henri Becquerel's discovery in 1896 of a new phenomenon, which Marie later called 'radioactivity', Marie Curie decided to find out if the radioactivity discovered in uranium was to be found in other elements. She discovered that this was true for thorium.

在第一次世界大战期间，玛丽在女儿伊伦的帮助下致力于X射线照相术的应用推广，她将X射线照相术应用于—种移动装置上，这种被称为“小居里”的装置可用于救治受伤的士兵。1918年镭研究所正式开始运作，伊伦加入了这个研究所的工作。镭研究所成为了核物理和化学研究的中心。此时，玛丽·居里已享誉盛名，玛丽自1922年起便是医学院的成员。她研究放射性物质的化学特性和医学应用。

1921年，玛丽在两位女儿的陪同下赴美国募集资金，她成功地为镭的研究筹得资金。美国妇女为了支持她的工作向她赠与一克镭。玛丽还在比利时、巴黎、西班牙和捷克斯洛伐克发表演讲。此外，居里基金会在巴黎取得了可喜的发展，镭研究所于1932年在华沙开幕，由玛丽的妹妹布洛妮亚任所长。

Turning her attention to minerals, she found her interest drawn to pitchblende, a mineral whose radioactivity, superior to that of pure uranium, could be explained only by the presence in the ore of:small quantities of an unknown substance of very high activity. Pierre Curie joined her in the work that she had undertaken to resolve this problem, and that led to the discovery of the new elements, polonium and radium. While Pierre Curie devoted himself chiefly to the physical 丨study of the new radiations, Marie Curie struggled to obtain pure radium in the metallic state. This was achieved with the help of the chemist Andre-Louis Debierne, one of Pierre Curie's pupils. Based on the results of this research, Marie Curie received her Doctorate of Science, and in 1903 Marie and Pierre shared with Becquerel the Nobel Prize for Physics for the discovery of radioactivity.

玛丽·居里做出的—项重大贡献是她认识到积累强放射源的重要性。这些强放射源不仅可用于治疗疾病，还可保证研究工作充足的供给一。位于巴黎的镭研究所中存有1．5克镭，正是这1．5克镭为1930年左右进行的实验奠定了成功的基础。其中包括詹姆斯·查德威克爵士发现中子；此外，值得一提的是，1934年伊伦与费雷德克里·约里奥·居里发现了人造放射源。在人选放射潦发现的几个月后．玛荫居里茜长期暴露于辐射而死于白血病(leukaemia)。玛丽生前经常将包含放射性同位素(isotopes)的试管放在口袋中，她常注意到这些试管发出的蓝蓝绿绿的美丽光芒。

玛丽·居里以它个人的工作为物理学做出了重大贡献，她所获得的两项诺贝尔奖说明了她的巨大成就。然而她对物理学的贡献不止于此，她还对后代的核物理学家及化学家产生了深远的影响。

The births of Marie's two daughters, Irene and Eve, in 1897 and 1904 failed to interrupt her scientific work. She was appointed lecturer in physics at the Ecole Normale Superieure for girls in Sevres, France (1900), and introduced a method of teaching based on experimental demonstrations. In December 1904 she was appointed chief assistant in the laboratory directed by Pierre Curie.

The sudden death of her husband in 1906 was a bitter blow to Marie Curie, but was also a turning point in her career: henceforth she was to devote all her energy to completing alone the scientific work that they had undertaken. On May 13,1906, she was appointed to the professorship that had been left vacant on her husband's death, becoming the first woman to teach at the Sorbonne. In 1911 she was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for the isolation of a pure form of radium.

During World War I, Marie Curie, with the help of her daughter Irene, devoted herself to the development of the use of X-radiography, including the mobile units which came to be known as 'Little Curies', used for the treatment of wounded soldiers. In 1918 the Radium Institute, whose staff Irene had joined, began to operate in earnest, and became a centre for nuclear physics and chemistry. Marie Curie, now at the highest point of her fame and, from 1922, a member of the Academy of Medicine, researched the chemistry of radioactive substances and their medical applications.

In 1921, accompanied by her two daughters, Marie Curie made a triumphant journey to the United States to raise funds for research on radium. Women there presented her with a gram of radium for her campaign. Marie also gave lectures in Belgium, Brazil, Spain and Czechoslovakia and, in addition, had the satisfaction of seeing the development of the Curie Foundation in Paris, and the inauguration in 1932 in Warsaw of the Radium Institute, where her sister Bronia became director.

One of Marie Curie's outstanding achievements was to have understood the need to accumulate intense radioactive sources, not only to treat illness but also to maintain an abundant supply for research. The existence in Paris at the Radium Institute of a stock of 1.5 grams of radium made a decisive contribution to the success of the experiments undertaken in the years around 1930. This work prepared the way for the discovery of the neutron by Sir James Chadwick and, above all, for the discovery in 1934 by Irene and Frederic Joliot- Curie of artificial radioactivity. A few months after this discovery, Marie Curie died as a result of leukaemia caused by exposure to radiation. She had often carried test tubes containing radioactive isotopes in her pocket, remarking on the pretty blue-green light they gave off.

Her contribution to physics had been immense, not only in her own work, the importance of which had been demonstrated by her two Nobel Prizes, but because of her influence on subsequent generations of nuclear physicists and chemists.