
Women Crowdfunded Radium For Marie Curie - omarchowdhury
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/when-women-crowdfunded-radium-marie-curie-180963305/
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KingOfCoders
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.

~~~
AlexTWithBeard
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 least the fact should be noted and reflected
upon.

~~~
konjin
It is then odd that the majority of scientists have rejected nationalism for
as long as nations existed.

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

~~~
dtech
In history and pop-culture she's known as Marie Curie.

Heck, she event has a SI unit named after her, the Curie.

~~~
trwired
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.

~~~
trhway
>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).

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gambiting
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.

~~~
severak_cz
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...](https://web.archive.org/web/20170704193910/http://history.aip.org/history/exhibits/curie/contents.htm)

~~~
saiya-jin
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

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

