Their Life Work Ended Their Lives Their work was for the benefit
of the world, but they died as a direct or indirect result of
their inventions. Marie Curie won the Nobel Prize in 1903 for
her work science and chemistry. She discovered two new elements
including radium and polonium and the theory of radioactivity.
She carried test tubes of radioactive materials in her pocket
and kept them in her desk drawer. She often wrote about the
pretty blue light it gave off. She died of aplastic anaemia – a
direct result of her work. William Bullock invented the rotary
printing press. It completely changed the printing industry. It
increased the speed and accuracy of printing especially for
newspapers. But one of his machines crushed his foot when he was
trying to repair it when he tried to kick a pulley in place.
After his foot became infected, he died during an operation to
amputate it. Otto Lilienthal was known as the Glider King. He
studied birds and built gliders with big wings that almost made
him look like a bird