Tomb of chemist Marie Curie in the Pantheon in Paris.
The tomb is lined with three centimeters of lead to protect the public from radiation, as the scientist’s remains are radioactive to this day.
Curie was a French-Polish scientist who won the Nobel Prize in physics in 1903 and the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1911. This makes her the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win twice, and the only person to win in two different sciences.
Curie is most famous for her discovery of the elements radium and polonium and for coining the term “radioactivity.” What she didn’t know at the time was that she was slowly killing herself by carrying radium tubes in her pockets. She would be constantly studying in her lab and at home, even admiring its glow at night.
She died in 1934 due to aplastic anemia.
Curie’s body, along with her personal belongings (cookbooks, clothes, furniture, lab notes), are expected to remain radioactive for the next 1,500 years.