Hello and welcome to Dead Funny History.
I'm Greg Jenner.
I'm a historian and I want to tell you about someone cool.
Today we are talking about a woman who was as rock and roll as she was clever.
Marie Curie discovered brand new elements,
won awards and used physics and chemistry to completely change the way we understand science.
Marie was born Marie Sklodowska in 1867 in Warsaw, Poland,
which at that point was part of the Russian Empire.
Marie was the youngest of five kids, Zofia, Josef, Bronoslava, known as Bronja, and Helena.
Both of her parents, Bronoslava and Vladislav,
were teachers and cared passionately about their education.
But sadly, both her mum and one of her sisters died of TB when Marie was young.
When she was 10, Marie went to school and did really well.
She ended up top of her class.
But when they got older, Marie and her sister, Bronja, weren't able to go to university.
Because they were women.
What?
I know!
Both Marie and Bronja attended an illegal underground school called the Flying University.
Not that type of flying.