Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize? A) Marie Curie B) Rosalind Franklin C) Dorothy Hodgkin D) Barbara McClintock
VerifiedAnswer: A) Marie Curie
Explanation:
Marie Curie made history in 1903 when she became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. She shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel for their groundbreaking research on radioactivity. This achievement was particularly remarkable considering the limited opportunities available to women in science during the early 20th century.
Born Maria Skłodowska in Poland in 1867, Marie Curie faced numerous challenges in pursuing her scientific career. She moved to Paris to study at the Sorbonne, where she earned degrees in physics and mathematics. Her dedication to research led her to discover the elements polonium and radium, which she named after her homeland Poland and due to its intense radioactivity, respectively.
Marie Curie's achievements didn't stop there. In 1911, she won a second Nobel Prize, this time in Chemistry, for her discovery of radium and polonium. This made her not only the first woman to win a Nobel Prize but also the first person to win Nobel Prizes in two different scientific disciplines. To this day, only one other person has achieved this remarkable feat.
Let's look at why the other options are incorrect. Rosalind Franklin was a brilliant scientist whose X-ray crystallography work was crucial to understanding DNA structure, but she never won a Nobel Prize during her lifetime. Dorothy Hodgkin won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1964 for her work on vitamin B12, making her the third woman to win a Nobel Prize. Barbara McClintock received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1983 for her discovery of genetic transposition, becoming the first woman to win an unshared Nobel Prize in that category.
Marie Curie's legacy extends far beyond her Nobel Prizes. She founded the Radium Institute in Paris, which became a leading center for nuclear physics and chemistry research. During World War I, she developed mobile X-ray units, nicknamed "petites Curies," which helped save countless lives on the battlefield. Her pioneering work laid the foundation for modern atomic physics and medical treatments using radioactive isotopes.
