Marie Curie, born Maria Salomea Skłodowska on November 7, 1867, in Warsaw, Poland, came into the world in a time of political fermentation. Poland was under Russian domination, and the rough governance deeply affected Polish artistic and academic life. Marie was the youthful of five children in a family of preceptors who largely valued literacy and nationalism. Her father, Władysław Skłodowski, was a drugs and mathematics schoolteacher, and her mama , Bronisława, ran a prestigious boarding academy for girls. From an early age, Marie displayed an exceptional intellect and a hunger for knowledge