Elements of Marie Curie
If there is a book reading/discussion by Dava Sobel at a bookstore near you — you should absolutely go. Dava is such a charming, intelligent and articulate person, chances are, you will immediately decide to read anything/everything she has ever written. Her beat is historical women in science. Her stories are for most part about women whose contributions to science should be better known, or some like Marie Curie who are already household names, but there is still more to know about them. It’s easy to forget the context in which these women did science.
From the Q & A with Sobel following her reading:
Is Marie Curie still relevant? I would say yes. I came from a family where women were never dissuaded from studying science. But this I have learnt is not the case for everyone, here, in the United States or elsewhere in the world. Nor is it just about getting advanced degrees in science. Many women with advanced degrees in science still drop out after becoming mothers. Childcare, sadly, remains an issue for mothers in science. Marie Curie herself was very fortunate. Her father-in-law took care of her two daughters. Further, even today, women do not find it easy rise to top positions in research institutes. There still seems to be plenty of bias against women in science.
How did you come to write this book? When an editor suggested I write about Madame Curie, I turned out down the idea. Later, I was asked to review a book about some early women in the field of radioactivity. A Devotion to Their Science by Marelene and Geoffrey Rayner-Canham.
“The women profiled in this book were not assistants or helpers—they were scientists in their own right, often working under conditions that denied them recognition, resources, or even basic respect.”
— Marelene and Geoffrey Rayner-Canham, A Devotion to Their ScienceAs it read it, it soon became evident that many of these women had spent time, during their formative years in Curie’s lab. It was a magnet for young women scientists back then. There were some 45 of them in all! Now the idea of working on a new biography became interesting. She had so many intellectual daughters in science apart from Irene, her eldest child, who would also go on to win a Nobel in chemistry. This was a fairly unknown part of her legacy.
What it was like writing the book? I worked on the book during the pandemic years and quite enjoyed the research and writing. Of course, the trips to Paris to look up archives and walk around in some of her haunts were out of the question. The research was done online. I quite enjoyed my time alone with Curie. She was such wonderful company!
Marie’s personality seemed to scream “leave me alone to my science please,” but, clearly, she was a shining example to many in her lifetime and beyond. She inspired women to take up science as a career. If women did have an opportunity to work in this space, it was thought that they were not the ones who had the Aha! moments. Women were thought be doing a different kind of science — patient, low-paid grunt work. But this is not the case and that truth has to be widely known…
My review of Dava Sobel’s book for Science.
P.S.
- Check out this episode of Google Talks where Dava speaks about her book The Glass Universe — about female human “computers” at Harvard University and their contributions to astronomy.
- Galileo’s Daughter. Read the Q & A with Dava titled: Galileo’s Contradiction: The Astronomer Who Riled the Inquisition Fathered 2 Nuns
- Longitude. “As much a tale of intrigue as it is of science…A book full of gems for anyone interested in history, geography, astronomy, navigation, clock making, and—not the least—plain old human ambition and greed.” —The Philadelphia Inquirer “
Pattipati Ramaiah Naidu: The Radiologist Who Followed Curie’s Glow
- Born: June 3, 1904, in Madanapalle, British India
- Academic Path: Studied at Banaras Hindu University, then earned his M.Sc. from the University of Paris in 1929
- Curie Connection: Naidu wrote directly to Marie Curie expressing his desire to work with her. She accepted him into the Radium Institute in Paris, where he conducted doctoral research under her guidance for four years
- Research Focus: His thesis explored the ionization curves of alpha rays in noble gases like krypton and xenon. He published his findings in French journals in 1934
- After Curie’s Death: Following her passing in 1934, Naidu reportedly ran her lab for a short time—a quiet but profound continuation of her legacy
- Legacy in India: He helped establish India’s first Radon production facility for cancer treatment and became Chief Physicist at Tata Memorial Hospital in Bombay. Also, he is the father of the beautiful actor Leela Naidu.
During his European stint in the mid-1920s, Satyendra Nath Bose spent time in Madame Curie’s laboratory in Paris. He was introduced to her by physicist Paul Langevin, and she graciously spoke with him in English. While Bose didn’t participate in any of the groundbreaking experiments underway at the time, his presence in her lab was part of a broader intellectual pilgrimage: he also worked in Maurice de Broglie’s X-ray lab and met several leading physicists of the era.