Eminent chemists of our time . nd Mme. Curie leaped from complete ob-scurity to the center of the worlds stage. Unlike mostscientific theories or discoveries, radium lent itself freelyto sensational newspaper write-ups, so that this modestlittle woman was discussed in parallel columns with theprominent politician and the stage beauty. Sincenatural repugnance for the limelight made it impossiblefor reporters to get interviews, the imagination came intofree play, and a halo of romance and mystery was thrownover her. In the middle ages she might have been asorceress; now she was a wizard in scien
Eminent chemists of our time . nd Mme. Curie leaped from complete ob-scurity to the center of the worlds stage. Unlike mostscientific theories or discoveries, radium lent itself freelyto sensational newspaper write-ups, so that this modestlittle woman was discussed in parallel columns with theprominent politician and the stage beauty. Sincenatural repugnance for the limelight made it impossiblefor reporters to get interviews, the imagination came intofree play, and a halo of romance and mystery was thrownover her. In the middle ages she might have been asorceress; now she was a wizard in science. In the same year—that is, 1903—Madame Curie andher husband came over to London at the express invita-tion of Lord Kelvin, and Monsieur Curie delivered anaddress on radium at the Royal Institution. The Curieswere presented with the Davy Medal of the Royal Society. How little known the Curies were until about 1903is shown by the following account, due to Mrs. HerthaAyrton, herself a distinguished English physicist: I 168. MARIE SKLODOWSKA CDREE was chatting in the laboratory [in London] one dayabout the year 1900, when a stranger entered, a Mon-sieur Becquerel, whom I had known previously, and heannounced that he had with him a new element, * ra-dium. He produced a little packet containing a sub-stance which he said was radium bromide. He sub-jected the substance to a chemical test for our informa-tion. Someone asked him who discovered it. Hereplied, * Madame Curie of Paris. This was the firsttime I had heard of Madame Curie. Within the next few months the Nobel Prize, thehighest mark of distinction that can come to any scientist,was divided between the Curies and Becquerel. In the following year Madame Curie was appointedChef de Travaux, or chief of the laboratory, in thedepartment at the Sorbonne that was especially createdfor her husband. For two more years were M. and Mme. Curie to livetogether, loving and working, and living as happily asany man and woman ever have l
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1900, bookdecade1920, booksubjectchemistry, bookyear19
