Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie (Great Discoveries)

+++++ "My own obsession lies in an investigation of the vast disparity between image and reality. The mythical Madame Curie remains perhaps the most famous woman scientist in the world...There is no doubt that over the last century Madame Curie's life has evolved into a towering image of perfection. But behind the image was a real woman. It was that person I wished to pursue." The above comes near the end of the introduction of author and historian Barbara Goldsmith's easy-to-read book subtitled "The Inner World of Marie Curie." She does indeed take us into Curie's "inner world" peeling away the layers of myth and giving us an unforgettable portrait of Polish immigrant Marie Curie nee Marya (Manya) Salomee Sklodowska, known to the world as Madame Curie. This book can be divided into four sections: (1) The time (1867 to 1895) that Marie was unmarried (chapters 1 to 4). (2) The time (1896 to 1906) when she was married to the distinguished physicist Pierre Curie to become Madame Marie Curie (chapters 5 to 12). She along with her husband and one other scientist shared the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903. (3) The time (1907 to 1934) when she was without Pierre (chapters 13 to 20). She won an unshared Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1911. (4) A profiling of Madame Curie's two female children, their families, and their significant achievements (chapter 21). She and Pierre won the 1903 Nobel Prize, "in recognition of the extraordinary services they have rendered by their joint researches on the radiation phenomena." She won the 1911 Prize "in recognition of her services to the advancement of chemistry by the discovery of the [radioactive] elements radium and polonium, by the isolation of radium, and the study of the nature and compounds of this remarkable element." I disagree with the above "Publishers Weekly Editorial Review" that says this book "is weakest at explaining the theoretical basis for Curie's scientific breakthroughs." I found the science was well explained and understandable. I did, however, find a few minor inaccuracies in this book. One major inaccuracy is when Goldsmith states that one of Curie's daughters and her husband (both scientists) won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1935 "for their discovery of artificial radioactivity." Actually, this was only one aspect of their work. According to the official Nobel Prize internet site, they won it "in recognition of their synthesis of new radioactive elements." There are more than fifteen illustrations (mostly black and white photographs) that permeate this book. I found all of them interesting. The acknowledgements section of this book is also interesting. We are told that one of Madame Curie's daughters and her granddaughter "decided [in the mid-1990s] to donate the Curie publications, diaries, journals, and workbooks [of the Curies that were originally sealed three years after Madame Curie's death] to the Bibliotheque Nationale on the rue Richelieu [a national libr

It is difficult now to imagine that women were once regarded as categorically unable to fulfill certain careers. When there is a large scientific meeting now, no one is surprised that women should be in attendance, although it can be argued that women's participation in science is still limited or lacking in recognition. The archetypal woman scientist is the one who broke all the rules of her time, Marie Curie, but even so, she didn't win all her battles. When she and her husband Pierre jointly won the Nobel Prize in 1903, she was forced to sit among the audience while Pierre gave the lecture of acceptance. There were many such episodes in her life, and that she didn't furiously withdraw from her busy research due to such rebuffs is remarkable. There is certainly a feminist message in her story, and in _Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie_ (Atlas Books / Norton), Barbara Goldsmith has allowed the life to deliver the message, realizing that editorializing on the matter is unneeded. Not only did Marie overcome social obstacles, she overcame her own cycles of profound depression that troubled her throughout her life, to become an enormously productive scientist. Goldsmith's book is a welcome recall of an inspiring story. Marya Salomee Sklodowska was born in 1867 in Russian-occupied Poland. Marie was an extremely bright student, and eventually was one of two women getting science degrees at the Sorbonne in Paris (Warsaw schools did not admit women). She had vowed never to let passion triumph over her research, but the two combined when she met Pierre Curie. He had also shared her attitude against falling in love, feeling that women "draw us away from dedication." The marriage was a strong one, but the scientific collaboration was nearly perfect. Within his lab, she took his suggestion to investigate the rays given off by uranium and other elements which had been discovered to produce images on photographic plates. These were something like the x-rays that had made a sensation, but the images were far less clear and dramatic. Scientists were fascinated with x-rays, but most thought that these other vague rays were not worth pursuing. Marie had a huge workload, having to fiddle with sensitive equipment like electrometers that would only yield useful results if handled with exhausting precision, and at the other end of the scale, having literally tons of pitchblende which she painstakingly fractionalized down to a few grains of radium. Pierre was killed by a horse-drawn wagon in 1906; he was limping and unsteady at the time from bone deterioration, so the radium may have directly caused his death. Goldsmith lists one famous scientist after another who during the decades doubted Marie's results because of her sex. All her life, even when she became famous throughout the world, she would be denied recognition or appointments simply because she was not a man. Marie went on to further discoveries, and also to practical inven

I learned of this book in the magazine section of my Sunday newspaper. I strongly doubted that a nonfiction book would be able to hold my interest for long as they can be so dry and tedious, but the topic sounded interesting, the review was promising and as I am a huge historical fiction reader I thought it might be worth a try. I am so grateful that I ran across that recommendation or I would have missed out on a real gem! The story grabbed me in right from page one. I couldn't wait to find some free time to be able to get back to reading! While definitely written as nonfiction, the story at times reads like a simple novel with short dialogue, letter excerpts and diary entries. These personal touches add a wonderful element to the book. The scientific explanations were presented very simplistically and were easy enough to understand. They too, added a wonderful and important element to the story. Marie Curie's life was fascinating: a woman of rare intelligence and genius, she was also plagued by severe depression (especially after the loss of her beloved Pierre) and faced the constant struggle to prove herself and receive her much deserved credit in what was a very male-dominated field. Yet despite these struggles, her devotion to science and her world-changing discoveries never diminished; they enveloped her very soul. I must admit that at times, when reading about her accomplishments and the ease at which science came to her, I felt alittle inadequate and less than intelligent. She was an inspiration! I was very happy to discover the wonderful coincidence that while I was reading this book, the anniversary of Marie Curie's discovery of radium and radioactivity took place. I strongly recommend this book to anyone that has an interest in science, history, women's rights, medicine or just plain life!

Kudos to social historian and biographer Barbara Goldsmith for her newest achievement, the insightful and compelling "Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie." This is no dry scientific treatise merely listing Curie's accomplishments in science, but an in-depth study of the very human side of this extraordinary woman and subsequently, the coterie of family, friends and peers who entered her realm. Ms. Goldsmith does make complicated scientific material accessible, indeed, understandable; however, she goes much further, examining the forces which aligned to create the eponymous Curie's character and enormous drive to achieve, which directed every aspect of her life. Through access to Curie's personal diaries and papers, previously unavailable for the past 60 years, as well as copious additional material, Ms. Goldsmith has culled a most fascinating portrait of a most fascinating personality. This book demands that yet another feather be placed in Barbara Goldsmith's literary cap (her previous titles include: "Other Powers: The Age of Suffrage, Spiritualism, and the Scandalous Victoria Woodhull," "Little Gloria...Happy At Last," "Johnson vs. Johnson," and "The Straw Man"). I highly recommend this biography to anyone interested in science, women's struggle for equal rights, the psychology of genius.......in short, anyone interested in an informative and thrilling "read!"

Obsessive Genius is an utterly fascinating portrait of a hallowed and difficult subject. If you are a fan of Goldsmith's work, (I am) you will immediately see that she is the perfect person to give Curie the complexity and dimension she deserves --as a scientist and as a woman. It's a short book which is by turns moving, informative, and intriguingly unexpected. I couldn't put it down.