Goldsmith has drawn heavily from primary sources, including Curie’s publications, diaries, and journals as well as family biographies, some of which have only become available recently. To a significant extent, she has achieved this goal.
Her goal is to understand the real woman behind the myths created by the general public and Hollywood filmmakers. Goldsmith’s work is compact and readable. Understanding her life provides insight and inspiration for all scientists. After her husband’s death, Curie raised their two daughters alone. She combined her scientific career with a fulfilling and devoted marriage to Pierre Curie, her scientific collaborator. She overcame significant prejudices against professional women. There is also the opinion that achieving professional success in science is so demanding that women who wish to pursue a scientific career must forgo family life.Ĭurie’s life and accomplishments directly contradict these ideas. Perceptions that women are less competent than men in math and science persist, although there is no evidence to support the idea. Obsessive genius: the inner world of Marie Curie, a biography by Barbara Goldsmith, appears at a time when women are still underrepresented in most fields of science.
In 1995 her (still-radioactive!) ashes were interred in the Pantheon in Paris, making her the first and only woman to receive such an honor. She was awarded Nobel prizes in physics (1903) and in chemistry (1911). Curie carried out groundbreaking research, providing the first detailed description of radioactivity and using its detection to discover two new elements: polonium and radium. In the early part of the twentieth century, when professional opportunities for women were rare, she was the first woman to obtain a doctoral degree from the Sorbonne. Most scientists, especially women, are fascinated by Marie Curie.
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