Who was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in two different scientific fields? A) Rosalind Franklin B) Ada Lovelace C) Marie Curie D) Barbara McClintock
VerifiedAnswer: C) Marie Curie
Explanation:
Marie Curie holds the extraordinary distinction of being the first woman to win Nobel Prizes in two different scientific fields. Born Maria Skłodowska in Poland in 1867, she became one of the most celebrated scientists in history through her groundbreaking research in radioactivity.
Her first Nobel Prize came in 1903 when she shared the Nobel Prize in Physics with her husband Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel for their joint research on radiation phenomena. This made her the first woman to ever win a Nobel Prize in any category. The trio's work laid the foundation for our understanding of radioactivity, a term that Marie Curie herself coined.
Eight years later, in 1911, Marie Curie achieved another historic milestone by winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for her discovery of the elements radium and polonium. She named polonium after her homeland Poland, which was then under foreign rule. This second Nobel Prize made her the first person of any gender to win Nobel Prizes in two different scientific disciplines.
Let's examine why the other options are incorrect. Rosalind Franklin was a brilliant British scientist whose X-ray crystallography work was crucial to understanding DNA structure, but she never won a Nobel Prize. Ada Lovelace was a 19th-century mathematician known for her work on Charles Babbage's Analytical Engine, but she lived before the Nobel Prizes were established in 1901. Barbara McClintock did win a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1983 for her discovery of genetic transposition, but she only won in one field.
Marie Curie's achievements extended far beyond her Nobel Prizes. She established the field of nuclear chemistry and physics, founded the Radium Institute in Paris, and developed mobile X-ray units during World War I to help wounded soldiers. Her dedication to science continued until her death in 1934, likely caused by prolonged exposure to radiation during her research.
