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Marie Curie Day

blog.jgc.org

21–30 of 70 posts

Re: Marie Curie Day

#21
post #18

Why do people always omit the "Skłodowska" part? She has used her maiden name through all her life and always identified with her Polish origins, so it might be a little bit disrespectful. There simply are too many signs that she would want to be remembered as Marie Skłodowska-Curie, not just Marie Curie.

History is (re)written by victors, etc...etc... ;-)

Re: Marie Curie Day

#22
post #18

Why do people always omit the "Skłodowska" part? She has used her maiden name through all her life and always identified with her Polish origins, so it might be a little bit disrespectful. There simply are too many signs that she would want to be remembered as Marie Skłodowska-Curie, not just Marie Curie.

In my case I plead ignorance. I grew up knowing her as Marie Curie and not as Marie Skłodowska-Curie. Who does one pronounce Skłodowska?

Re: Marie Curie Day

#23
post #20

Maria Skłodowska-Curie, to be exact. She moved to France and married there, but never rejected her Polish origins. In fact she supported Polish independence, founded a scientific institute in Warsaw and named one of the elements she discovered after Poland.

Exactly, I hate the fact that hardly anyone outside Poland knows that she was Polish.

Re: Marie Curie Day

#24
post #13
post #12

Marie Curie is undeniably one of the greatest female role-figures in science of the last century. I don't know why she isn't more revered, although perhaps are here are a few reasons why: (Note: I bring them up mostly in hopes of pointing out how silly they are) 1. Her work eventually killed her. There was no way for the Curies to know what effect long-term radiation exposure would have, but it's still not a huge ima…

Not sure about in US, but I'm pretty sure majority of kids in this part of the world knows who Marie Curie is than Ada Lovelace. Ada Lovelace is celebrated among us the computer geeks, because she's the female icon for the field.

My 7th-grade daughter just did a report on Marie Curie for school. She was fascinated by the subject, and amazed to find how useful and important her research was. I wanted to go to her laboratory/museum in Paris when we were there several summers ago, but it was unfortunately closed.

Bottom line, Marie Curie is a great role model, and while I don't think that my daughter is headed for a career in science or engineering, at least she now sees that there are women who did it, and did amazing things in the field.

Re: Marie Curie Day

#25
post #18

Why do people always omit the "Skłodowska" part? She has used her maiden name through all her life and always identified with her Polish origins, so it might be a little bit disrespectful. There simply are too many signs that she would want to be remembered as Marie Skłodowska-Curie, not just Marie Curie.

In my case I plead ignorance. I grew up knowing her as Marie Curie and not as Marie Skłodowska-Curie. Who does one pronounce Skłodowska?

Sklo-DOV-ska

Sclo like it's halfway between a and o, _not_ an “oh”.

Re: Marie Curie Day

#26
post #3

It seems a bit sad that we apparently only can have one woman in science. Why not have two? I think it's perfectly legitimate to celebrate Marie Curie but at the same time also celebrate Ada Lovelace, and I don't see how the two are in competition. If we're going down that route, why are we paying so much attention to Alan Turing, who elected him as the man in science? Aren't there other computer pioneers worth celeb…

If we're going down that route, why are we paying so much attention to Alan Turing, who elected him as the man in science? No one. He isn't "the man in science" - only a few computer geeks know about him. The man in science is Einstein. I seriously doubt the man on the street could name anyone else, with the possible exception of "schizophrenic Russel Crowe".

Precisely. Would anyone argue that instead of Einstein Day, we should have Turing Day? No, the objection to that would be that for one thing they have very little in common, so why would one replace the other, and for the other part, why can't we have both an Einstein Day and a Turing Day? Both valid points. So why are women different, why is it the case that the only way Curie can become more prominent is if Lovelace takes a step back?

The choice of Turing as an example: He was a closer match to Lovelace in being a computer science pioneer.

Re: Marie Curie Day

#28
post #4

Agreed! Our school curriculum covered Marie Curie on multiple subjects: Chemistry and English (her biography made for inspirational reading) and by contrast, Lovelace has had what one would call "honourable mention" ;-) I keep referring back to this topic more and more these days... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stiglers_law_of_eponymy

Link shoud be to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigler%27s_law_of_eponymy

Re: Marie Curie Day

#29
post #20

Maria Skłodowska-Curie, to be exact. She moved to France and married there, but never rejected her Polish origins. In fact she supported Polish independence, founded a scientific institute in Warsaw and named one of the elements she discovered after Poland.

While she was born Maria Salomea Skłodowska, she studied in Paris and Sorbonne. She was denied higher education in Poland because she was a woman. Later, University of Kraków also rejected her, because she was a woman.

It's not nice, but I think it's OK to call her a French scientist. Poland clearly didn't want her. It is an old tradition that best polish scientists, athletes and inventors go abroad. They're not valued in the country.

Re: Marie Curie Day

#30
post #18

Why do people always omit the "Skłodowska" part? She has used her maiden name through all her life and always identified with her Polish origins, so it might be a little bit disrespectful. There simply are too many signs that she would want to be remembered as Marie Skłodowska-Curie, not just Marie Curie.

In my case I plead ignorance. I grew up knowing her as Marie Curie and not as Marie Skłodowska-Curie. Who does one pronounce Skłodowska?

sk uo dovska
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