Google Honors Marie Curie with a Doodle

Google paid tribute to Noble Prize winning scientist Marie Curie on her 144th birth anniversary Monday, with a doodle of her sitting in her laboratory on the search engine's homepage.

Curie is best known for her pioneering work in radiation that revolutionized medical imaging.

Google, the Internet search engine, occasionally honors people, groups or holidays with Doodles, decorative changes to the Google logo. Visitors on Google site Monday can see a portrait of Curie sitting among laboratory apparatus.

Marie Curie was the first person to be honoured with two Nobel Prizes in both physics and chemistry. In 1903, she and her husband Pierre Curie shared Nobel Prize for physics with Henri Becquerel, the discoverer of radioactivity, for their research into the phenomenon of radiation. Curie received a second Nobel Prize in 1911, this time in chemistry, in recognition of discoveries of several radioactive elements. Also in 1898, along with her husband, she published a paper announcing the existence of a new element, polonium.

She died July 4, 1934, from aplastic anaemia, a condition caused by her exposure to radiation as during her entire tenure of research, she worked out of a shed with no proper safety against radioactivity.

The United Nations declared 2011 as the International Year of Chemistry to celebrate her achievements and contributions.