Thursday, January 7, 2010

Marie Curie

Today's Innovator is Madame Curie. She was a pioneer in the field of radiation and radioactivity. She was an early example of a woman excelling in a very deep field of science.

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18 comments:

  1. Definitely ahead of her time. I wonder what ship she was on and where she was going?

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  2. It is interesting that 120 years later Marie Curie's notebooks are still to radioactive to handle without protection...

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  3. I tried to find the name of the
    ship, without luck.

    Madame Curie made two trips to
    America, 1921 and 1929. She toured
    the US raising funds for
    research into radium. Wikipedia
    says she was in great discomfort
    at this time. As she died in 1934,
    it was a brave thing to do, cross-
    ing the Atlantic at her age.

    In the photo, the ship is listing
    and Madame Curie is holding onto
    her hat, so it was no easy
    crossing.
    The North Atlantis is an
    unforgiving piece of ocean.

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  4. Since people were commenting on movies where Tesla was a character. The film "Madame Curie" with Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon is pretty good. The film makers worked hard to present the science as realistically as possible while still making it both comprehensible and entertaining.

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  5. Marie Curie died from the effects of the radiation exposure she had received in her research - leukemia. So she really did give her all to her scientific research; quite literally.

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  7. Ana amazing woman! I often use her as an example of Polish people who don't fit the stereotype joke.

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  8. How did she die? Did she has some form of cancer caused by radiation?

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  9. ooooppps---I just read through he comments:)

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  10. Hey PJM great work my friend.
    You are truly a rockstar.
    You have shown some great stuff that can be rarely seen any where in the world. Great Work Keep it up?

    One more thing i would like to ask you that from where you got these wonderfull pics?

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  12. Technical Update.

    The ship isn't listing, it's
    rolling. Bad mistake for an
    ex-seaman.

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  13. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  14. A very interesting woman with a challenging life -- I believe her husband was killed tragically?

    I also wanted to ask a question. I have heard stories about old-time shoe stores that had some kind of x-ray device for one's feet. I met someone once who had lifelong foot problems, the cause attributed to exposing his foot to this device when he was a child. Can anyone confirm or explain further?

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  15. Elise,
    On Wikipedia there's something about the "shoe fitting fouroscope"

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  16. There was such a machine in the shoe store in Harvey, La. in the late 40's. Luckily my mom didn't let me and my sister use it as much as we wanted too. So far, feet still OK.

    Jay

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  17. Elise,
    the fluoroscopes were dangerous. Today when you get an x-ray, it is a snapshop the x-rays are on and off in the blink of an eye, so you get very little radiation, and you only get x-rays when they are needed, and machines are designed to limit your exposure to the radiation. The fouroscopes could bombard you with very large doses of radiation. I am not sure if it would cause foot problems, but would certainly increase your lifetime risk of cancer.
    Paul

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  18. I understand that she used to carry radioactive samples in her coat pocket, not knowing the full extent of the danger. Brave and amazing woman to be sure.

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