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by dtech 2121 days ago
In history and pop-culture she's known as Marie Curie.

Heck, she event has a SI unit named after her, the Curie.

3 comments

1. Wikipedia states: "according to a notice in Nature at the time, it was named in honour of Pierre Curie, but was considered at least by some to be in honour of Marie Curie as well."

2. The Curie isn't an SI unit, the Becquerel (Bq) is.

Time to change that, then. She insisted on using both surnames and strongly emphasized her Polish roots throughout her life. Erasing her Polish maiden name clashes with her wishes and is only possible, because due to historical circumstances Poland had very limited impact on global popular culture.
>strongly emphasized her Polish roots throughout her life

and named the first element she discovered - Polonium - after her homeland.

And in Russian space she is Мария Склодовская-Кюри (Maria Skłodowska-Curie) too (that was on her portrait in our chemistry class back in 198x for example).

Not in polish history nor pop culture. Given that she insisted on using both it is kind of disrespectful to her.