- Hello! I'm Adam and welcome to Corpse Talk.
The show that brings the dead famous to life!
You may notice something different about me tonight,
I'm zipped into this special suit,
because on today's show is a guest who comes with glowing recommendations.
She's a winner of two Nobel Prizes,
and invented the word "radioactive".
(cheering)
♪ Corpse Talk ♪
♪ A history chat about this or that ♪
♪ Corpse talk ♪
♪ Corpse Talk ♪
♪ Where the dead famous come to life ♪♪
- It's Marie Curie!
(jazzy music)
(applause)
- Oh no! Stop it!
This will not do.
Go on! Shoo!
(groans and sighs)
- I'm so sorry about all this, Marie.
- I really hate having a fuss made of me.
- And you'll have to excuse the protective suit,
but you did spend your life working with deadly radiation.
- We didn't know it was deadly at the time.
And the way of progress is neither swift nor easy.
- And things not coming easy
was a theme that ran right through your life, wasn't it?
- You are correct.
I was in Warsaw, Poland, in 1867.
And even though I was top of my class in school,
I was allowed to study at university because I was a woman.
- Uh? Nyet.
(door slams, gasp)
(Marie): Plus, I was Polish.
The Russian Empire was in charge of Poland at that time,
and it was hard for us Poles to get an education.
- Double nyet!
(grunts)
- But I wasn't going to let that stop me.
I had a passion for science,
so I studied at the secret underground university in Warsaw.
(whispering): It was very "hush, hush".
- Cool! Like a training base for...
uber-intelligent superhero scientists?
(epic music)
- Ha!
- Don't be ridiculous!
It wasn't anything like that.
I was studying as hard as I could, and I loved it.
Ah! (Adam): And so, by this time,
you'd move to Paris to study mathematics and physics
at the world-famous Sorbonne University. (Marie): Yes.
But I was so poor, I could only afford a drafty little attic.
It got so cold, I had to sleep with all my clothes on.
- But being a young student in Paris must have been great.
I bet you had some wild nights!
- I did. - Brilliant!
- Studying. - Oh.
(sighs) - Okay,
if you want something other than hard work and science, then... very well.
Paris, is where I met my husband Pierre.
- Now, that's more like it.
Meeting your husband in Paris.
(with a French accent): The city of love!
Where did you two go on your honeymoon? Venice?
No, wait, Bali!
(Marie): In our laboratory, actually.
Pierre was also a scientist, and as dedicated to work as me.
We were both interested in X-rays.
(heartbeat)
- Uh-huh, that sounds fun too.
- They were the newest phenomena in science at the time.
But I was actually interested in another ray
given off by the chemical element uranium.
Stop me if you know this already.
- Oh, yeah! Sure, uranium, rays. Totally with you.
Oh. - Here, let me show you.
- Oh!
(rhythmic music)
So pleased they made me wear this suit.
- Scientists always thought that atoms were the smallest thing that existed.
But it was discovered that the rays were coming from inside the atom.
And I called these rays "radiation".
- And your discovery revolutionized the world!
From astrophysics to cancer treatment.
This was the birth of nuclear science!
- Pierre and I discovered two new chemical elements:
Radium, which I named after radiation,
and Polonium, which I name after my beloved Poland.
- And together, you won the most prestigious award in science:
the Nobel Prize!
- Yes, although some scientists didn't want to award it to a woman.
But in the end, no one could ignore my contributions.
- Wow! You and Pierre were quite the nuclear power couple.
- We were. Things were so good.
But then, tragedy struck.
Pierre had a terrible accident and died.
- Oh, Marie, that's horrible.
- I was devastated, but I had to be strong for my two children.
And staying busy was a distraction.
I became the first female professor at the University of Paris.
And later, I set up the Radium Research Institute,
to honour my dear Pierre.
- And in 1911, you won a second Nobel Prize for chemistry!
- Yes, but uh... Do you mind?
(indistinct chatter) - Ooh, sorry.
(cheering)
(explosions)
(dramatic music)
(grunting) Where am I?
(car honking) Marie?
- During the First World War,
I raised funds for a fleet of mobile X-ray machines.
The soldiers called them "Petit Curies".
- Oh, this must have been a real morale-booster!
(chuckling)
Wow, I can see my bones!
- It wasn't for playing around with. - Oh!
- It was for doctors to spot bullets and shrapnel in wounded soldiers.
- Sorry, guys, after you.
But, your research had a serious downside:
you absorbed so much radiation over the years, it made you sick.
And eventually, it killed you.
Even your books are still radioactive more than 100 years later.
- Scientific progress is sometimes painful.
- It's kind of like Radium turned out to be your Kryptonite.
(chuckling) You know?
The green, glowing stuff that hurts that flying superhero guy?
- You know that's not a real chemical element, right?
- Of course! Everyone knows that.
I was just testing you.
Although, all that radiation, you didn't... I don't know,
develop any superpowers, did you?
(epic music)
(chuckling) (Marie): You are a strange little man.
- Oh, I'll take that as a compliment.
Well, sadly, that is all we have time for.
(cheering) Join us again on Corpse Talk.
The show that brings the dead famous to life!
Oh! Marie!
♪ Corpse Talk ♪
♪ A history chat about this or that ♪
♪ Corpse talk ♪
♪ Corpse Talk ♪
♪ Where the dead famous come to life ♪♪