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

Rating:
Summary: Captivating
Review: 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!

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Summary: The Archetypal Female Scientist
Review: 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 inventions. During the First World War, she was inspired to invent mobile x-ray units, cars equipped with x-ray equipment that could be dispatched to battle-front hospitals, especially for the urgent job of locating bullets and shrapnel for the surgeons to remove. The units, called "Les Petites Curie," only took off as invaluable tools once Marie persuaded bureaucrats that women could serve as drivers and technicians. She continued to work at the Curie Institute, which profited by the ill-advised fashion of adding radium to lipstick and drinking water, and also got funding from those contributing to it thinking that radium was being investigated as a cure for cancer. She was covered in skin lesions, especially on her hands, when she died in 1934. Goldsmith's brisk, sympathetic portrait of a driven woman benefits from having excellent descriptions of the historic thoughts about x-rays, radiation, and atoms. Marie's obsession eventually killed her, but for her, the work was more important than the life. She wrote, "I never see what has been done; I only see what remains to be done."


Rating:
Summary: Marie Curie Revealed: A Fascinating Saga
Review: 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!"

Rating:
Summary: A Fascinating Biography
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Superb Biography of the First Woman to Win the Nobel Prize
Review: Over the years, Barbara Johnson has published numerous biographies of strong women having to compete in a male dominated world. "Other Powers" (1999) is the story of the 19th-century feminist Victoria Woodhull and is similar in tone to this tale of scientist Marie Curie who would win the Nobel Prize twice.

"Obsessive Genius" traces the career and loves of Marie Curie (1867-1934) who pioneered early research into uranium and radioactivity. As the title suggests, she combined a brilliant mind with an obsession for her work -- dangerous work which would later cause her death and the deaths of her daughter and son-in-law. Losing her soul mate scientist husband in a tragic accident in 1906, she would fall in love with another scientist five years later. Alas, the scientist was also married and she suffered a nervous breakdown from the ensuing public scandal.

Ms. Johnson has written a clear and concise biography without getting bogged down in the minutiae of her daily life or of her scientific experiments. It is recommended reading for the reader who is interested in this determined woman who blazed a trail for other women scientists to follow.

Rating:
Summary: A Work of Literary Genuis!
Review: The author has discovered the truth of Marie curie's impoverished, Dickensian , childhood, has read papers sealed for 60 years (some radioactive!) to get this incredible story, the truth behind the legend. Every library should have this sensational and deeply inforrmative book and so should book clubs and anyone who wants a great read. A bestseller for sure. If there were more than five stars that's how I'd rate it.

A must read!!!

Rating:
Summary: APerfect Gift
Review: This book should be in every library and under every Christmas tree or Hunakah bush!It is the perfect gift.

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Summary: A Two-time Winner of the Nobel Prize.
Review: This historian was able to get articles in 'Parade' and the Jan. 2005 'Reader's Digest', "I Found My Heroine" and "Force of Nature," about her OBSESSIVE GENIUS, written for the Great Discoveries Series.

She did show the human side and 'inner world' of a woman of science, Marie Curie, and her daughter Irene, both physicists like her professor of physics father. Even her granddaughter, Helene, followed in their footsteps.

Born in Warsaw, Poland, Marie had to relocate to Paris and change her name to be able to become known, and she basked in the notoriety. In 1893, she became the first woman to earn a degree in physics at the Sorbonne. Perhaps she was a 'genius' but suffered periods of depression in which she was not able to function.

In 1903, she won her first Nobel prize for physics and in 1911 another for chemistry. In all that time until 1935, it had not gone to a woman scientist when her grandaughter Irene and husband received one from King Gustav V of Sweden for their discovery of artificial radioactivity.

Marie and Pierre discovered radium which led to the use of x-rays plus cosmetics which proved to be hazardous. Pierre commited suicide in 1906 by walking in front of a loaded wagon outside their apt. after an argument. He was already disfigured by radiation exposure; both Marie and Irene died from overexposure to it as did countless others.

Radium was described as that 'pernicious shimmering angel of mercy and of death.' On p. 119, there is a long list of ads for bath salts, teas, health tonics, face creams, lipsticks, sexual aids and such. Radium had become the pet substance of high society, like Botox today. By 1904, a gram cost 110,710 U.S. dollars today (750,000 gold francs). A 500 franc carries the photo of the Curies.

As with today's powerful drugs, it was advertised in news publications as a 'miracle' to restore health. It did the opposite.

She was 38 when her husband died after eleven years of marriage, and one article states that she "bravely carried on, raising her two daughters and working steadily until her death at age 66 on July 4, 1934." The book tells a completely different, more human, story of Marie's affair with a younger man, a former student of Pierre, Paul Laugevin, who was married. It turned into a sordid tale.

Radium treatment continued to be the substance of choice until the middle 1950s, when cobalt replaced it.

Younger daughter Eve did not followed in her parents' or older sister's footsteps. Because of her mother's disapproval, she became something of a rebel and she refers to her as if they were not related. In the mid 1990s. she and her niece donated the Curie publications, diaries, journals, and workbooks, thus making this book possible. Everything had to be decontaminated.

The black and white photos throughout the text of the book (not lumped into a glossy section of their own) were a good addition, though most were in the magazine articles. Maybe she became an idol to some in the science field. "An image can be easily altered, can go from good to bad in an instant. Todays's heroine becomes tomorrow's villain; we become cynical when these synthetic idols disppoint us."

If she'd left out the illicit love affair, perhaps her idolotry of a superhuman genius might carry a little weight. It merely showed that she was human and a lowly female. A good mother? I doubt Eve would agree.

Rating:
Summary: It's interesting, curious Curie!
Review: This is a comprehensive and insightful look into the life of a brilliant scientist, Marie Curie. It is an intimate portrait of her triumphs and hard times. Blessed with superior intellect and a knack for science, she was determined not to let sexist trends of the time hold her back. Curie learned complicated math and science at a young age with her father's help and her fierce study habits. Science was everything to her. Although this book is melodramatic at times, the psychology of Marie Curie is very interesting; she led a wonderful and tragic life. Goldsmith effectively describes the intensity of her achievements against the odds, and reveals her inner world. Her husband Pierre was her flame, her partner in science and in life; once that flame went out, she lost her spirit. Reading this book will make you see her in a totally different way.