
Marie Curie: Why her papers are still radioactive - arjn
http://www.csmonitor.com/Innovation/Horizons/2011/1107/Marie-Curie-Why-her-papers-are-still-radioactive
======
Stratoscope
It's amazing to see scientists experimenting on themselves!

I've always been impressed by what Barry Marshall did.

For years it was common knowledge that ulcers were caused by stress, spicy
food, and excess acid. A "bland diet" was the prescribed palliative care for
ulcers. There was no cure. And ulcers could - and often did - lead to stomach
cancer.

Dr. Marshall thought that that the bacterium _H. pylori_ might be the cause.
But the idea that bacteria could thrive in the acidic environment of the
stomach was thought to be ridiculous.

So he tested the theory by drinking a solution of _H. pylori_ and giving
himself ulcers.

He had a biopsy taken on himself to prove it was the bacteria, and then cured
himself with a course of antibiotics - the same way ulcers are cured today.

Ulcers are not a chronic disease any more, and stomach cancer has become rare.

[http://discovermagazine.com/2010/mar/07-dr-drank-broth-
gave-...](http://discovermagazine.com/2010/mar/07-dr-drank-broth-gave-ulcer-
solved-medical-mystery)

~~~
arjn
I don't think Marie or Pierre knew the ill effects of exposure to high doses
of radiation. Nobody did. They had no idea (at that time) how dangerous it
was.

~~~
Udo
> They had no idea (at that time) how dangerous it was.

This reminds me that every time Fukushima is mentioned on HN, the discussion
is immediately dominated by people who claim that radiation exposure is not
harmful (or even that it is healthy) and that contamination is not an issue in
the province. To be fair, I think these days it's an ideological problem,
whereas back then they just didn't have enough data and models about what's
going on.

------
pdknsk
> In 1903, Pierre Curie, after observing burns on his arm left by the chunk of
> radium that he tied to it for 10 hours, concluded that he had discovered a
> cure for cancer.

That's some uneasy irony.

~~~
acqq
Related: [http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/offbeat-
news/10-radioac...](http://www.environmentalgraffiti.com/offbeat-
news/10-radioactive-products-that-people-actually-used/1388?image=1)

Pierre Curie died 1906, Marie lived till 1934:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie)
"Although her many decades of exposure to radiation caused chronic illnesses
(including near blindness due to cataracts) and ultimately her death, she
never really acknowledged the health risks of radiation exposure."

All that doesn't diminish the significance of her work.

~~~
dnautics
Pierre didn't die of cancer - he slipped off the sidewalk was run over by a
carriage. Amazingly, he missed the horses, and the front wheels, but his head
was smashed by one of the rear wheels; part of his skull wound up on Marie's
dress, and the supposed story is that Marie never washed her dress - kept
wearing it until her daughter Irene finally convinced her to burn it in a
pyre.

------
thaumasiotes
It's very interesting to read some of the pop literature of the time. The
Conan and Oz stories both refer to radium very positively as a mystical
technology capable of essentially anything, which advanced societies would
naturally use where they could.

People today don't look the same way, I think, on the idea of a city set deep
underground, where all the lighting is provided by radium set into the walls.

------
spikels
Marie Curie lived to be 66 at a time when the life expectancy in France was
around 45. It's true her husband and co-experimenter, Pierre Curie, only lived
to be 46 - he was killed by a heavy horse-drawn cart!

Perhaps we are a little too paranoid about the risks of radiation.

~~~
nyrina
And smoking isn't unhealthy, because my dad is still alive and kicking at 80
years old, right?

This is the reason why the size of the samples are important.

------
mikesname
Fascinating. I'm quite impressed she lived to the ripe old age of 66.

------
fnsa
please, Marie Curie.

~~~
arjn
I do not understand - is there an error in the submission title ?

~~~
stiff
Marie Skłodowska-Curie is her "correct" name in some sense:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Marie_Curie_Sk%C5%82odowsk...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Marie_Curie_Sk%C5%82odowska_Signature_Polish.svg)
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Curie)

~~~
mietek
It's worth pointing out she used the full version of her name herself.

------
snowwrestler
It's a good cautionary tale about how we should react to new science and
technology.

While knee-jerk rejection can be annoying, skepticism is warranted!

What topics have the potential to surprise us with unforeseen downsides? I'd
guess nano particles and GMOs, off the top of my head.

------
ALee
With the advent of the FDA, the likelihood of something similar to radium as a
cure for cancer is unlikely. Although, I sometimes think with experimental
international stem cell therapy or kombucha, there's bound to be something...

------
amercade
I'm shocked by Eben Byers death, related in the article, and all that
radioactive quackery.

Homeopathy (to name one) today is a joke compared to what we've done in the
past. Radioactive toothpaste!

I hope there's no equivalent nowadays.

~~~
DanBC
> I hope there's no equivalent nowadays.

Quackery isn't quite as bad as radioactive toothpaste or heroin syrup to calm
the baby, but it's still pretty bad.

People with HIV are told to stop taking "poisonous" ARV meds, and to drink a
concoction of lemon juice, garlic, ginger, etc. This isn't some obscure quack
either, it's the president of a country, and the health minister of that
country. When the deputy health minister spoke out she was sacked.
([http://www.irinnews.org/report/73679/south-africa-deputy-
hea...](http://www.irinnews.org/report/73679/south-africa-deputy-health-
minister-sacked-for-doing-her-job))

Matthias Rath is, in my opinion, the embodiment of evil. His scams have killed
very many people. ([http://www.irinnews.org/report/83497/south-africa-final-
chap...](http://www.irinnews.org/report/83497/south-africa-final-chapter-in-
rath-saga))

People talk about the evils of big pharma, and that they're only in it for the
money. Pharma does have many problems, but the solution isn't to go to the
greedy quacks selling vitamins as a cure for all cancer or a cure for
AIDs/HIV. And Rath made a lot of money from selling vitamins.

Here's another snake oil "cure" for HIV/AIDS.
([http://www.irinnews.org/report/94679/africa-snake-oil-
salesm...](http://www.irinnews.org/report/94679/africa-snake-oil-salesmen-and-
dodgy-hiv-cures))

There are many examples from the developed world too. I link to the African
stories because the statistics were just so mind-boggling when HIV/AIDS was at
its worst.

------
crb002
I've always wanted to go into the library archives of Iowa State University
with a Geiger counter and visit the physics journals from the Manhattan
project.

