Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie by Barbara Goldsmith
233 pages
Started: 13 January 2012
Finished: 20 January 2012
I think I’ve decided that the part about science that most interests me is not so much the discoveries themselves, although there are several of those that really do fascinate me. But it’s more the stories behind the discoveries. Who are these people? What was their drive? What kind of life did they live? These people were truly fascinating.
And Marie Curie is no exception. A female scientist in a brutally exclusive man’s world. A woman driven by nationalism, obsession, and even love. She discovered that radiation is an atomic property while discovering two new elements. She is responsible for the first mobile x-ray units used on the fronts of war. Her oldest daughter and a granddaughter became outstanding scientists in their time. There is a myth surrounding her life, and while much of it was created to help raise money for their laboratory, a task she dreaded, there is reason behind a lot of it.
I knew how the story would end. I know what happens to someone exposed to that much radiation. And I knew it would not be pleasant. As I read the book and read of her husbands horrid health before his accidental death, which probably spared him for a more painful death, of her ever deteriorating health, I felt pained for them. These brand new substances with powers they were only beginning to understand were killing them, and they did not know. However at the close of the book the author points out that they did. They warned the world. They made those that worked in their lab take extra precautions, but they never took them for themselves. Their passion for their work blinded them to the effect on themselves. More than a hundred years later their possessions are still radioactive.
Her struggle for education, for recognition, for even just the chance to do the work she love, that was inspiring. She was a fascinating woman.
Rating: 9


