Today Google’s Doodle celebrates Marie Curie’s Birthday

Born in Poland, on November 7, 1867 Curie moved to Paris in her early 20s to study mathematics and physics at the Sorbonne. She and husband Pierre are remembered for their groundbreaking work in physics and, later, in chemistry.

She championed the use of radium in medicine and helped to develop portable x-ray units for use in the first world war. Curie’s war efforts went far beyond this, however; she became director of the Red Cross radiological service and gathered supplies, vehicles, and monetary donations to support the cause.

Curie died of bone marrow disease pernicious anaemia, caused by years of exposure to radiation, in 1934. She was interred at the Pantheon in Paris, the first woman to receive such a posthumous honor. In 2010, HarperCollins published Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout.