True or False? Marie Curie cured cancer! False! Marie Curie discovered the element radium. The rays given off by radium help to cure some cancers. She was the first person, male or female, to win two Nobel Prizes. During World War I, she put X-ray equipment on sturdy trucks and traveled from one army hospital to the next, helping save soldiers' lives. She dedicated her life to her research and died as a result of her exposure to radium. Read these other History Maker Bios about inventors and scientists who changed our world: George Eastman, Thomas Edison, Albert Einstein, Milton Hershey, The Wright Brothers.