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Women Crowdfunded Radium For Marie Curie

smithsonianmag.com

31–40 of 41 posts

Re: Women Crowdfunded Radium For Marie Curie

#31

Oh no, another thread that will bring the nationalists out (see the hundreds of Wikipedia fights about nationality and naming of famous people). The Wikipedia page of Curie had it's share. As if it is important from what nation a person is who gifted humanity with a piece of art, an invention or scientific breakthrough. I wonder why people are so eager to associate their nation with the results of individuals. I neve…

It's important for two reasons. First, it's just a precautionary measure. Every once in a while I have to remind my children that USA is not the only great country in the world. Other countries have also fought for their land, produced great artists and scientists and usually have quite an interesting history. Second, putting my scientific hat on, if some country has much more/less scientists than another, then at le…

It is kind of sad you have to actually remind your kids about that, don't you think?

Balanced, objective education system would have no problem learning kids exactly that, but in many places that's a pipe dream. And US is surprisingly, at least in some aspects, one of those places.

Re: Women Crowdfunded Radium For Marie Curie

#32
post #8

Were men excluded from crowdfunding for Marie Curie? So bad.

I can't imagine they were, it's just that female academics of the time rallied together to rise the money. I doubt that if a man wanted to donate he would have been turned away.

Yep. It's stunning to me as someone who is on both banks of humanities and STEM how the STEM side has simultaneously the assertion of how great Western science is and the total aversion to critical thought about that assertion. It's a system of power called patriarchy which works in tandem with white supremacy yoked to timespace of capitalism that underpins the logic of our order. Necropower is the term. Millions of pages of peer-reviewed articles beneath science to engage with impoverishing science. It's sad.

Re: Women Crowdfunded Radium For Marie Curie

#33

I would be very interested in knowing where did that radium come from? How was it produced at the time? The article says president Warren presented her with 1g of the element - how was it secured, in such a small quantity? Did she bring it back with her just in her purse? So many questions.

She isolated radium from (many tons of) Uranitite, which was donated by Austrian goverment. This was waste byproduct of mines in Jáchymov (today in Czech republic). See https://web.archive.org/web/20170704193910/http://history.ai...

Ah yes, the favorite place of Communism regime to dispose of unwanted citizens, instead of just hanging them.

It was usually a death sentence, be it for uranium ore, brutality of the guards or inhumane conditions. Crimes varied, often political opponents of hardline communists (including less radical ones), or being in domestic/foreign resistance against nacism during WWII.

Quite a few folks who fought for allies ie pilots in Battle of Britain, went home as heroes and ended up there. Sad times

Re: Women Crowdfunded Radium For Marie Curie

#34

Oh no, another thread that will bring the nationalists out (see the hundreds of Wikipedia fights about nationality and naming of famous people). The Wikipedia page of Curie had it's share. As if it is important from what nation a person is who gifted humanity with a piece of art, an invention or scientific breakthrough. I wonder why people are so eager to associate their nation with the results of individuals. I neve…

I always felt like it was the only thing people could relate to. "Wow, we're from the same place, see we are (better,best,number1)" vs actually contributing to their own nation.

But, I also think being proud of the country you're/belong to in isn't a bad thing either.

So fun stuff.

Re: Women Crowdfunded Radium For Marie Curie

#35
post #6
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In history and pop-culture she's known as Marie Curie. Heck, she event has a SI unit named after her, the Curie.

Time to change that, then. She insisted on using both surnames and strongly emphasized her Polish roots throughout her life. Erasing her Polish maiden name clashes with her wishes and is only possible, because due to historical circumstances Poland had very limited impact on global popular culture.

>strongly emphasized her Polish roots throughout her life

and named the first element she discovered - Polonium - after her homeland.

And in Russian space she is Мария Склодовская-Кюри (Maria Skłodowska-Curie) too (that was on her portrait in our chemistry class back in 198x for example).

Re: Women Crowdfunded Radium For Marie Curie

#36
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no "only" in the title. Are you even interested in the topic or you're just taking the opportunity to whine?

Downvote and move on, no need to start a fight.

I think I'd have to have 501 karma to be able to do that, and I don't have that, nor do I strive to get there.

Re: Women Crowdfunded Radium For Marie Curie

#37
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Downvote and move on, no need to start a fight.

I think I'd have to have 501 karma to be able to do that, and I don't have that, nor do I strive to get there.

I think the threshold for flagging is lower than for downvoting, but many people don't realize you can flag a comment because you have to click on the timestamp to see the "flag" option.

In some cases, flagging is appropriate.

Re: Women Crowdfunded Radium For Marie Curie

#38
post #23

Scared of non ASCII characters? ;) It's Maria Skłodowska-Curie

Her signature was apparently more often than not M. Curie. https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soubor:Marie_Curie_signature.s... The nobel prize of 1903 refers to her as "Marie Curie, née Sklodowska", meaning that Sklodowska is her maid name but not her name after marriage in French. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1903/summary/

Yes, it means it's her maiden name, but née just translates as born. It was her birth name.

Re: Women Crowdfunded Radium For Marie Curie

#39
post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Her signature was apparently more often than not M. Curie. https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soubor:Marie_Curie_signature.s... The nobel prize of 1903 refers to her as "Marie Curie, née Sklodowska", meaning that Sklodowska is her maid name but not her name after marriage in French. https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1903/summary/

Yes, it means it's her maiden name, but née just translates as born . It was her birth name.

Yeah, and it's typically how it is said in French: it refers to your name at birth, which is not current anymore.

Re: Women Crowdfunded Radium For Marie Curie

#40
"An assessment of the gender imbalance based on full counting, which does not account for prize share, reveals that women have received 3.29% of the 607 Nobel medals awarded since 1901. But an analysis based on fractional counting, which considers prize share, finds that only 2.77% of the 331 science prizes have gone to women."

https://www.natureindex.com/news-blog/the-nobel-gender-gap-i...

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