International Women's Day - Marie Curie

In honor of #internationalwomensday and #womenshistorymonth, a giant of science...the inimitable Marie Curie, the first woman to win not one, but two Nobel Prizes for foundational work in the discovery of radiation, and the elements radium and polonium, named after her native Poland.

In medical history, Marie Curie made a huge contribution to battlefield medicine in World War I, taking it upon herself to develop mobile radiology labs (second picture) to take x-rays to the front. She had to adapt x-ray technology, in addition to developing a dynamo to allow the cars to power the x-ray machines.

She gathered multiple cars, outfitted them, then trained over 150 x-ray technicians to run them, and took one to the front herself.

She did all of this despite the risks of x-ray exposure, a problem that she later blamed for the development of anaplastic anemia which led to her death in 1934.

Photo Credits: Wikimedia, Bibliothèque nationale de France

Max

[Doctor with a mustache]