Why was Marie Curie buried in a lead-lined coffin?

Marie Curie died of aplastic anemia from working with radiation and her coffin was later discovered by excavators with a lead lining 2.5 mm thick.

Marie Curie with her husband, Pierre Curie. Photo: Wikimedia

Marie Curie is remembered today for her pioneering work on radioactivity, which not only earned her two Nobel Prizes but is also recognized as the "mother of modern physics". Research into the radioactive elements polonium and radium leaves a lasting scientific legacy, but it is these substances that also have lasting effects on her body, IFL Science reported on May 25.

Curie is not only the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, but also the only woman to be awarded in two different fields. In 1896, French physicist Henri Becquerel noticed that uranium salts emit rays similar to X-rays in their ability to penetrate objects. Curie studied Becquerel's work as part of her thesis. She and her husband, Pierre Curie, embarked on research. They discovered radium and polonium, two new radioactive elements, in 1898. This result earned the Curies half the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903. The other half went to Becquerel.

In 1911, after a personal tragedy (Pierre Curie died suddenly in 1906), Curie was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for isolating pure radium. She devoted herself to the study of the chemistry of radioactive substances and their applications in medicine. Without Curie's research, cancer treatments probably wouldn't have developed as they are today. But despite the precautions, regular long-term exposure to these substances still had consequences for Marie Curie.

Tomb of Pierre and Marie Curie in the Panthéon. Photo: Wikimedia

Marie Curie died on July 4, 1934 from aplastic anemia caused by working with radiation. This is a rare blood disease that occurs when the bone marrow doesn't make enough new blood cells for the body to function properly. When she died, her body was so radioactive that she had to be placed in a lead-lined coffin. However, this was not known until 1995, when her coffin was unearthed.

At that time, the French government wanted to move the Curies and his wife to the national mausoleum - the Panthéon - to honor their great contribution to science and become symbols in French history. The team in charge of excavations contacted the French Radiation Protection Agency due to concerns about residual radiation and asked for assistance to protect the workers in the cemetery.

When the excavation team approached the Curie's grave, they noticed that the air had normal levels of radiation. This level increases when the tomb is opened, though not by much. At first, Marie Curie's coffin looked like it was made of ordinary wood. But when they opened it, workers discovered it had a lead lining 2.5mm thick.

Subsequent tests showed that Marie Curie's body was very well preserved, with only low levels of alpha and beta contamination. According to the Journal of British Society for the History of Radiology , this may be because Curie has taken steps to limit radiation exposure towards the end of life.

However, after 100 years, many of her belongings, including furniture, cookbooks, clothes and lab notes are still highly radioactive. Some of the items are stored in lead-lined boxes at the National Library of France in Paris. To access them, visitors must sign a legal disclaimer and wear protective gear to avoid exposure to radium-226, an isotope with a half-life of up to about 1,600 years.