Wednesday Science Stories
These really are science stories. I was reviewing a book at work today (Scientists Through the Ages); it has 2-3 page bios of some great but not always well known scientists, with experiments to go with the field(s) each one made discoveries in. Cool idea.
Anyway, I had to try hard not to read too much, because the lives of these scientists were just so fascinating. Marie Curie's story sticks out the most. She was born in Poland, to a family with not much money. Her sister and she promised to put each other through school, so Marie worked until her sister became a doctor, and then she got to go to university in Paris, where she supposedly lived off bread and hot chocolate (because they were cheap). Her last year, she married a guy named Pierre Curie, and they went on to discover things together, like the fact that plutonium was radioactive. (I can't give you a good scientific definition of radioactive, unfortunately.) She's the one that named radioactivity, "radioactivity." But was that in French or English? Anyway, they both won a Nobel prize - she was the first woman to win one, I think. But working with radioactive elements gave them both a short life. Their daughter (Irene?) also won a Nobel prize, and also died young because of her work with radioactivity.
Also memorable was Mary Anning, called in her day "the Princess of Paleontology" because she discovered so many dinosaur fossils in Lyme Regis in the 1810s-30s. Her family was very poor and made a living selling fossils, but I guess she became quite knowledgeable on the subject, as well as expert at finding them.
And then there is the wife of chemist Antoine Lavoisier, Marie-Anne. She got married at the age of 14, and learned English so she could read about the English scientific advances to her husband. But he was unfortunately part of a tax collector group as well as a scientist, and had his head chopped off during the French revolution.
Hmm, I didn't pay too much attention to the scientific aspects. Their lives were just too interesting. ;)
Anyway, I had to try hard not to read too much, because the lives of these scientists were just so fascinating. Marie Curie's story sticks out the most. She was born in Poland, to a family with not much money. Her sister and she promised to put each other through school, so Marie worked until her sister became a doctor, and then she got to go to university in Paris, where she supposedly lived off bread and hot chocolate (because they were cheap). Her last year, she married a guy named Pierre Curie, and they went on to discover things together, like the fact that plutonium was radioactive. (I can't give you a good scientific definition of radioactive, unfortunately.) She's the one that named radioactivity, "radioactivity." But was that in French or English? Anyway, they both won a Nobel prize - she was the first woman to win one, I think. But working with radioactive elements gave them both a short life. Their daughter (Irene?) also won a Nobel prize, and also died young because of her work with radioactivity.
Also memorable was Mary Anning, called in her day "the Princess of Paleontology" because she discovered so many dinosaur fossils in Lyme Regis in the 1810s-30s. Her family was very poor and made a living selling fossils, but I guess she became quite knowledgeable on the subject, as well as expert at finding them.
And then there is the wife of chemist Antoine Lavoisier, Marie-Anne. She got married at the age of 14, and learned English so she could read about the English scientific advances to her husband. But he was unfortunately part of a tax collector group as well as a scientist, and had his head chopped off during the French revolution.
Hmm, I didn't pay too much attention to the scientific aspects. Their lives were just too interesting. ;)
posted by Amanda @ 8:11 PM
1 Comments:
At 8:49 PM,
Melodee said…
ah ha! Great material for adding some women to the newsletters. Hooray!
These will be much better than the ladies who invented the windshield wiper and the diswasher :)
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