Marie Curie: Honesty in Science

By Carl Rollyson

Professional biographer Carl Rollyson has pioneered a new kind of biography for children and adults alike. His narrative of Marie Curie's life is rendered in simple, precise prose, but he also includes material addressed to adults-especially to parents who wish some guidance in discussing what their children read. This home schooling biography also includes a timeline, sources for further study, a glossary, and an index.

Vivid quotations from those who knew Marie Curie as well as a "points to ponder" section in each chapter are designed to provoke further discussion and research into the life and career of one of the century's greatest scientists and-as Rollyson shows-one of the most important figures in human history.

At a time when the ethics of science and of scientists has been called into question, Rollyson's searching examination of Madame Curie's methods and morality makes this a sharply focused and challenging biography.

The Marie Curie that emerges from this account is a woman of great integrity and self-discipline, acutely conscious of her historic role, keenly devoted to protecting her private life, and yet willing to shape her personality to the public roles demanded of her.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Dec 21, 2004
• ISBN: 9780595788453

Carl Rollyson

Carl Rollyson is professor emeritus of journalism at Baruch College, CUNY. He is author of many biographies, including Sylvia Plath Day by Day, Volumes 1 & 2; William Faulkner Day by Day; The Last Days of Sylvia Plath; A Real American Character: The Life of Walter Brennan; Hollywood Enigma: Dana Andrews; and Marilyn Monroe: A Life of the Actress, Revised and Updated. He is also coauthor (with Lisa Paddock) of Susan Sontag: The Making of an Icon, Revised and Updated. His reviews of biographies have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and New Criterion. He also writes a weekly column on biography for the New York Sun.

Book preview

Copyright © 2005 by Carl Rollyson and New English Publishing Associates

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,

taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

iUniverse books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

iUniverse

2021 Pine Lake Road, Suite 100

Lincoln, NE 68512

www.iuniverse.com

1-800-Authors (1-800-288-4677)

ISBN: 0-595-34059-8

ISBN: 978-0-5957-8845-3 (ebook)

CONTENTS

Timeline

Prologue

Chapter 1:   Between Hope And Despair

Chapter 2:   A New Beginning

Chapter 3:   Big Discoveries

Chapter 4:   Fame

Chapter 5:   Tragedy And Triumph

Chapter 6:   Laboratory And Home

Chapter 7:   War And Peace

Chapter 8:   A Historical Monument

Summing Up A Life

Afterword To Parents

Sources For Further Study

Glossary

Timeline

1795: Russia Prussia, and Austria partition Poland, which disappears as an independent country from the map of Europe.

1859: May 15: Pierre Curie is born in Paris.

1861: American Civil War begins

1863-1864: Russification of Poland begins.

Nov. 7, 1867: Manya (Marie) Sklodowska is born in Warsaw.

1869-1871: Dimitri Mendeleev develops the perioidic table of elements.

1881: Russian Czar Alexander II is assassinated.

1884: Marie begins work as a governess for a Polish family.

Nov 3, 1891: Marie registers for her first classes at the Sorbonne.

1893: Marie receives her Bachelor of Science degree from the Sorbonne.

September: The Polish government awards her a grant for postgraduate study.

1894: Nicholas II begins reign as Russian czar.

July 25, 1895: Pierre Curie and Marie are married.

1897: Marie gives birth to her daughter, Irene.

1903: Marie and Pierre share the Nobel Prize for Physics with Antoine Henri Becquerel for the discovery of radioactivity.

1904: Marie gives birth to her second daughter, Eve.

1904: Russo-Japanese War begins—the first time Japan defeats a Western power.

April 19, 1906: Pierre Curie is struck and killed by a horse-drawn wagon.

Nov. 5, 1906: Marie gives her first lecture as a professor of physics at the Sorbonne.

1911: Marie wins the Nobel Prize for Chemistry. Aug. 1914: World War I begins.

Nov. 1, 1914: The first truck with X-ray equipment goes into service in the French army.

November 9, 1918: Poland achieves its independence.

1920: Marie tours America and obtains a gram of radium for France.

1929: U. S. stock market crashes, sparking a worldwide economic depression.

1932: Irene Curie begins to take over many of her mother’s responsibilities in the laboratory.

July 5, 1934: Marie dies.

Prologue

Honesty

To be honest means to tell the truth, to be honorable and fair. Words such as integrity and genuine come to mind when praising honest work in any field. However, in science, precise measurement, the double-checking of experiments and scrupulous honesty in reporting results are crucial.

But there is another meaning to honesty and that is to be true to yourself, to understand your own strengths and limitations. Marie Curie never pretended to know more than she