6 ms·

Women Crowdfunded Radium For Marie Curie

104 points by omarchowdhury 6y ago

bartoszcki 6y ago
Scared of non ASCII characters? ;) It's Maria Skłodowska-Curie
- blanche_ 6y ago
  This is kinda of sad, because wikipedia has her page titled as Marie Curie too. It is a bit ironic imo, because poles are very proud of her and yet at the time the country failed her, by not giving the possibility of attending university.
  - trwired 6y ago
    > the country failed her, by not giving the possibility of attending university The country didn't exist at the time, being partitioned between Prussia, Russia and Austria-Hungary. Poles didn't have much to say about the university admission policies of the Russian Empire, where she lived. She did, however, attend the so called Flying University [1], which was a higher education institution organized by Polish underground resistance. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_University https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_University
    - blanche_ 6y ago
      You're obviously right, forgot that I have to check if my country existed in a given time.
  - bawolff 6y ago
    Seems like wikipedia decided that they preferred to use the name she is most commonly known by in english sources. I found an old discussion about it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Marie_Curie/Archive_2#Requested_move https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Marie_Curie/Archive_2#Req...
- dtech 6y ago
  In history and pop-culture she's known as Marie Curie. Heck, she event has a SI unit named after her, the Curie.
  - trwired 6y ago
    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.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - trhway 6y ago
      >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).
  - float4 6y ago
    1. Wikipedia states: "according to a notice in Nature at the time, it was named in honour of Pierre Curie, but was considered at least by some to be in honour of Marie Curie as well." 2. The Curie isn't an SI unit, the Becquerel (Bq) is.
  - blanche_ 6y ago
    Not in polish history nor pop culture. Given that she insisted on using both it is kind of disrespectful to her.
- ekianjo 6y ago
  Her signature was apparently more often than not M. Curie. https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soubor:Marie_Curie_signature.svg 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/ https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1903/summary/
  - DoreenMichele 6y ago
    Yes, it means it's her maiden name, but née just translates as born. It was her birth name.
    - ekianjo 6y ago
      Yeah, and it's typically how it is said in French: it refers to your name at birth, which is not current anymore.
xchip 6y ago
Were men excluded from crowdfunding for Marie Curie? So bad.
- gambiting 6y ago
  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.
  - curation 6y ago
    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.
- ponker 6y ago
  No. Did they? No.
- DominikD 6y ago
  There's no "only" in the title. Are you even interested in the topic or you're just taking the opportunity to whine?
  - Taek 6y ago
    Downvote and move on, no need to start a fight.
    - DominikD 6y ago
      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.
gambiting 6y ago
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.
- adammunich 6y ago
  Processing uranium ore by the ton, a few grams per ton! Yes, she did bring it back in her purse. As well she would keep a vial as a pocket toy to show off at parties (it ionizes the air and glows blue). Her textbooks are still very radioactive.
- severak_cz 6y ago
  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.aip.org/history/exhibits/curie/contents.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20170704193910/http://history.ai...
  - saiya-jin 6y ago
    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
KingOfCoders 6y ago
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 never felt the urge or understood the reasoning.
- adventured 6y ago
  I agree with your sentiment, generally speaking. It derives from needing to pull pride from another thing through self-selected association. It's the same thing that sports fans do when their preferred team wins a championship. You see all sorts of weird permutations of this concept in action. When NASA or SpaceX does something, it's said to be an accomplishment for all of humanity, people around the world want a piece of that pride, to be part of a great thing. It's a component of tribalism (and neither inherently positive nor negative), probably deeply wired into humanity. It also happens around race, religion, politics and ideology broadly. Why? Well, the answer is a mixed bag of positives and negatives. It's the same reason people obsess over celebrities (tabloids, fan groups, and so on). Their own lives are not very interesting, they lack/yearn for accomplishment, so they desperately seek to fill voids via the things they take an interest in, trying to grab hold of accomplishment elsewhere, slice off a tiny bit of that for themselves through distant association. It's why nations culturally revel in their historical accomplishments, even if they were 2,000 years ago. On the positive side, it probably helps create bonds between people socially, culturally, and is likely a requirement for the formation and sustainment of civilization (drawing pride from a thing, allocates self-interest in supporting/protecting the thing).
  - thefounder 6y ago
    There is no single answer for this but I believe it also helps promote better systems(political/economical). It's obvious that a gifted person without support from the environment can achieve very little. Think of what Steve Jobs would have achieved if he was to be born and raised in Syria. Not much I would say. Therefore I believe it's right for people to pull pride from someone's else work through association. You (would) have no SpaceX without the US capitalist system. When NASA or SpaceX does something, it's an accomplishment of the very people working there, then of the people who supported them and not least of all the humanity. It'a like winning a war. It's not only the people that fight in the front lines that matter. It's a whole system.
wombatmobile 6y ago
"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-is-worse-than-you-think https://www.natureindex.com/news-blog/the-nobel-gender-gap-i...

104 points by omarchowdhury 6y ago

bartoszcki 6y ago

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

blanche_ 6y ago
This is kinda of sad, because wikipedia has her page titled as Marie Curie too. It is a bit ironic imo, because poles are very proud of her and yet at the time the country failed her, by not giving the possibility of attending university.
- trwired 6y ago
  > the country failed her, by not giving the possibility of attending university The country didn't exist at the time, being partitioned between Prussia, Russia and Austria-Hungary. Poles didn't have much to say about the university admission policies of the Russian Empire, where she lived. She did, however, attend the so called Flying University [1], which was a higher education institution organized by Polish underground resistance. [1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_University https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_University
  - blanche_ 6y ago
    You're obviously right, forgot that I have to check if my country existed in a given time.
- bawolff 6y ago
  Seems like wikipedia decided that they preferred to use the name she is most commonly known by in english sources. I found an old discussion about it https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Marie_Curie/Archive_2#Requested_move https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Marie_Curie/Archive_2#Req...
dtech 6y ago
In history and pop-culture she's known as Marie Curie. Heck, she event has a SI unit named after her, the Curie.
- trwired 6y ago
  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.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - trhway 6y ago
    >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).
- float4 6y ago
  1. Wikipedia states: "according to a notice in Nature at the time, it was named in honour of Pierre Curie, but was considered at least by some to be in honour of Marie Curie as well." 2. The Curie isn't an SI unit, the Becquerel (Bq) is.
- blanche_ 6y ago
  Not in polish history nor pop culture. Given that she insisted on using both it is kind of disrespectful to her.
ekianjo 6y ago
Her signature was apparently more often than not M. Curie. https://cs.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soubor:Marie_Curie_signature.svg 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/ https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/physics/1903/summary/
- DoreenMichele 6y ago
  Yes, it means it's her maiden name, but née just translates as born. It was her birth name.
  - ekianjo 6y ago
    Yeah, and it's typically how it is said in French: it refers to your name at birth, which is not current anymore.

xchip 6y ago

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

gambiting 6y ago
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.
- curation 6y ago
  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.
ponker 6y ago
No. Did they? No.
DominikD 6y ago
There's no "only" in the title. Are you even interested in the topic or you're just taking the opportunity to whine?
- Taek 6y ago
  Downvote and move on, no need to start a fight.
  - DominikD 6y ago
    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.

gambiting 6y ago

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.

adammunich 6y ago
Processing uranium ore by the ton, a few grams per ton! Yes, she did bring it back in her purse. As well she would keep a vial as a pocket toy to show off at parties (it ionizes the air and glows blue). Her textbooks are still very radioactive.
severak_cz 6y ago
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.aip.org/history/exhibits/curie/contents.htm https://web.archive.org/web/20170704193910/http://history.ai...
- saiya-jin 6y ago
  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

KingOfCoders 6y ago

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 never felt the urge or understood the reasoning.

adventured 6y ago
I agree with your sentiment, generally speaking. It derives from needing to pull pride from another thing through self-selected association. It's the same thing that sports fans do when their preferred team wins a championship. You see all sorts of weird permutations of this concept in action. When NASA or SpaceX does something, it's said to be an accomplishment for all of humanity, people around the world want a piece of that pride, to be part of a great thing. It's a component of tribalism (and neither inherently positive nor negative), probably deeply wired into humanity. It also happens around race, religion, politics and ideology broadly. Why? Well, the answer is a mixed bag of positives and negatives. It's the same reason people obsess over celebrities (tabloids, fan groups, and so on). Their own lives are not very interesting, they lack/yearn for accomplishment, so they desperately seek to fill voids via the things they take an interest in, trying to grab hold of accomplishment elsewhere, slice off a tiny bit of that for themselves through distant association. It's why nations culturally revel in their historical accomplishments, even if they were 2,000 years ago. On the positive side, it probably helps create bonds between people socially, culturally, and is likely a requirement for the formation and sustainment of civilization (drawing pride from a thing, allocates self-interest in supporting/protecting the thing).
- thefounder 6y ago
  There is no single answer for this but I believe it also helps promote better systems(political/economical). It's obvious that a gifted person without support from the environment can achieve very little. Think of what Steve Jobs would have achieved if he was to be born and raised in Syria. Not much I would say. Therefore I believe it's right for people to pull pride from someone's else work through association. You (would) have no SpaceX without the US capitalist system. When NASA or SpaceX does something, it's an accomplishment of the very people working there, then of the people who supported them and not least of all the humanity. It'a like winning a war. It's not only the people that fight in the front lines that matter. It's a whole system.

wombatmobile 6y ago

"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-is-worse-than-you-think https://www.natureindex.com/news-blog/the-nobel-gender-gap-i...