Many of you may have mark thattoday ’s Google Doodlehonors famed physicist and chemist Marie Curie , in celebration of her birthday . But this class also score the centennial of her 2d Nobel Prize . ( It bears mentioning that Curie was not only the first woman to win a Nobel Prize , she is also the only woman to gain in two fields , and the only person ever to win in multiple sciences . )
Top picture is Marie Curie as portrayed by Susan Marie Frontczak in “ Manya,”a one - woman drama on the lifespan of Marie Curie .
In recognition of her accomplishment , Smithsonian powder magazine recently assembled a routine of pieces that explore not just the impact of Curie ’s work , but some of the more seldom analyse facets her remarkable life . Featured here is a inadequate extract from “ Madame Curie ’s heat , ” an especial in - astuteness lineament by Julie Des Jardins that really warrants a read :
When Marie Curie get to the United States for the first clock time , in May 1921 , she had already expose the elements Ra and polonium , coin the term “ radio - active ” and won the Nobel Prize — twice . But the Polish - born scientist , almost pathologically diffident and accustomed to pass most of her meter in her Paris research lab , was stun by the ostentation that greeted her .
She attended a dejeuner on her first day at the house of Mrs. Andrew Carnegie before reception at the Waldorf Astoria and Carnegie Hall . She would later come along at the American Museum of Natural History , where an display commemorated her uncovering of radium . The American Chemical Society , the New York Mineralogical Club , malignant neoplastic disease enquiry facilities and the Bureau of Mines held events in her honor . afterwards that hebdomad , 2,000 Smith College students let the cat out of the bag Curie ’s congratulations in a choral concert before confer her with an honorary degree . Dozens more colleges and universities , let in Yale , Wellesley and the University of Chicago , confab honors on her .
The pavilion event of her six - week U.S. tour was take in the East Room of the White House . President Warren Harding spoke at length , praise her “ neat attainments in the realm of science and understanding ” and saying she represent the best in womanhood . “ We put at your infantry the testimonial of that love which all the generation of valet have been wo nt to bestow upon the imposing womanhood , the unselfish married woman , the devoted female parent . ”
It was a rather odd matter to say to the most grace scientist of that geological era , but then again Marie Curie was never easy to infer or categorise . That was because she was a pioneer , an outlier , unique for the newness and immensity of her accomplishment . But it was also because of her sexual activity . Curie work during a great age of innovation , but proper women of her time were think to be too sentimental to perform nonsubjective science . She would forever be see a act strange , not just a great scientist but a great cleaning woman scientist . You would not expect the chairman of the United States to praise one of Curie ’s male contemporaries by calling attention to his humanity and his cultism as a father . Professional science until evenhandedly recently was a man ’s world , and in Curie ’s time it was rare for a fair sex even to take part in pedantic aperient , never mind triumph over it .
understand the rest over atSmithsonian cartridge
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