Why the remains of Maria Curie lie in a lead coffin, and her things can not be touched 1500 years

The Pantheon in France is the burial place of the world famous inhabitants of the country. Here you can see the tombs of Victor Hugo, Voltaire, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and other prominent figures of science and art. Throughout history, only two women have been honored to be buried here, one of them is Marie Curie. An outstanding physicist, whose merits the whole world knows, rests in the Pantheon with his husband Pierre Curie. The body of the famous woman scientist, as well as her husband, rests in a special lead coffin, and there is a very good reason for this.

It is not at all difficult to guess about them, given the specifics of the activities of Marie Curie. After all, she devoted her life to the study of radioactivity. It was she who owned the discovery of radium and polonium. The phenomenon of radioactivity was discovered by a friend of the Curie family, Antoine Henri Becquerel in 1896. Of course, nothing was known about the destructive effect of radiation on the human body at that time, so when Marie Curie, extremely interested in the discovery of Becquerel, began to study the essence of this unusual phenomenon, she did not use any special protection during her experiments.

The female physicist did not even think about the dangers of her experiments, so she could just put samples of radium and polonium in her pocket or bring work to her home. For this reason, her clothes, jewelry, books, notebooks, furniture in the house - everything is contaminated with radiation and is still dangerous. And it will represent for about 1.5 thousand years - just such a half-life of radium-226.

At the moment, Marie Curie's personal belongings and all her records are stored in the National Library of France in special lead boxes. To work with the notebooks of the scientist, visitors to the library must change into a protective suit and sign papers on the possible consequences.

For her brilliant discoveries in the field of physics and chemistry, Marie Curie paid with her health. In 1934, she died of aplastic anemia caused by the prolonged exposure of the body to radioactive elements. Her oldest daughter, Irene Joliot-Curie, also suffered from the effects of polonium and radium, the girl developed leukemia, from which she later died.

Marie Curie with her daughters Eve and Irene.

Maria Skłodowska-Curie and her husband Pierre, with whom she investigated the radioactivity of the elements. The family of the greatest scientists, thanks to whom people have learned how to get atomic energy.