# In what condition are Marie Curie's remains?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-condition-are-marie-curies-remains/1012090
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 24, 2024, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-condition-are-marie-curies-remains/1012090 "2024-12-24T03:07:41Z")
**Posts on this page:** 11
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2024, 3:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-condition-are-marie-curies-remains/1012090/1 "2024-12-24T03:07:41Z")
As I understand it, Marie Curie’s remains are in a coffin lines with an inch of lead, because they’re radioactive. Would the radioactivity tend to preserve her body? Or would she rot like everyone else?
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### Author:  [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2024, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-condition-are-marie-curies-remains/1012090/2 "2024-12-24T04:41:57Z")
If you weren’t aware, here is the final Jeopardy! clue on December 11th (sorry for no spoiler):
The World of Science
[nobleprize.org](http://nobleprize.org) says some papers of this scientist “are stored in a lead box”, a “legacy that is virtually untouchable”
It’s the papers that are in a lead box in this case. Her remains? The article below says her coffin was indeed lined with lead, but only 0.09 inches (2.54 mm), not inches.
> **[Marie Curie's Body Was So Radioactive She Was Buried In A Lead-Lined Coffin](https://www.iflscience.com/marie-curies-body-was-so-radioactive-she-was-buried-in-a-lead-lined-coffin-69080)**
>
> Her research into radioactivity changed the nature of modern physics, but how radioactive has it left this famous scientist?
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### Author:  [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)
#### Post date: [December 24, 2024, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-condition-are-marie-curies-remains/1012090/3 "2024-12-24T10:18:01Z")
The [journal article](https://sfrp.asso.fr/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Exhumation-Marie-Curie.pdf) on which that article was based is much more detailed and rather more accurate.
Note that all the protocols put in place for the exhumations at Sceaux in 1995 were decided before anyone had any idea whether there would be a problem. They were done simply as precautions. They then proved to be unnecessary. All that was found was that Pierre Curie’s remains were a bit more radioactive than normal.
Also, it isn’t at all obvious that there was any significance in the fact that her coffin was lined with lead. Lead-lined coffins weren’t particularly rare in 1930s France.
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### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2024, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-condition-are-marie-curies-remains/1012090/4 "2024-12-25T18:51:23Z")
I’ve heard the same (burial in a lead-lined coffin, because of the risk of radiation from the body) about Alexander Litvinenko, the Russian defector who was killed by the FSB with Polonium-210.
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2024, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-condition-are-marie-curies-remains/1012090/5 "2024-12-25T18:56:00Z")
Which, if true, is ridiculous, since Po-210 is an Alpha emitter, and Alpha particles can’t penetrate a piece of paper.
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### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2024, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-condition-are-marie-curies-remains/1012090/6 "2024-12-25T19:10:09Z")
That’s why the corpse is in a No. 10 business-size envelope.
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### Author:  [@Saint\_Cad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Cad)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2024, 7:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-condition-are-marie-curies-remains/1012090/7 "2024-12-25T19:14:26Z")
> [@beowulff](#):
>
> Which, if true, is ridiculous, since Po-210 is an Alpha emitter, and Alpha particles can’t penetrate a piece of paper.
What about the daughter isotopes?
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### Author:  [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2024, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-condition-are-marie-curies-remains/1012090/8 "2024-12-25T19:29:06Z")
I seems that there aren’t any:
**Polonium-210** (210Po, Po-210, historically **radium F** ) is an [isotope](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotope) of [polonium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonium). It undergoes [alpha decay](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_decay) to [stable](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stable_nuclide) [206Pb](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lead-206) with a half-life of 138.376 days (about 4+1⁄2months), the longest half-life of all naturally occurring [polonium isotopes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_polonium) (210–218Po).
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### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2024, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-condition-are-marie-curies-remains/1012090/9 "2024-12-25T19:42:33Z")
> [@Saint\_Cad](#):
>
> What about the daughter isotopes?
Anybody else read this and have the urge to get married and reproduce just so you can have a girl and say “This is my daughter, Isotopes.” ? Is it just me?
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### Author:  [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2024, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-condition-are-marie-curies-remains/1012090/10 "2024-12-25T22:51:11Z")
> [@DocCathode](#):
>
> Is it just me?
No, and I also want her to play for the Springfield (NT) baseball team.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [December 25, 2024, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-what-condition-are-marie-curies-remains/1012090/11 "2024-12-25T23:17:38Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#):
>
> Springfield (NT) baseball team.
Would you settle for [Albuquerque](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albuquerque_Isotopes)?