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Saturday, May 20, 2017

Marie Curie and scientific discovery

 

Photo source: Wikimedia Commons

 

Marie Curie (1867-1934) was a Polish chemist best known for her pioneering work in radioactivity. Physicist Ernest Rutherford said,

 

"Marie Curie made a detailed examination by the electrical method of the great majority of known substances, including the very rare elements, to see if they possessed any activity." (Radio-activity, 1904)

 

The rest of this post is some quotes from Curie.

 

Scientific discovery

 

"If I see anything vital around me, it is precisely that spirit of adventure, which seems indestructible and is akin to curiosity." (Quoted in Madame Curie: A Biography by Eve Curie Labouisse)

 

"Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained." (Quoted in Madame Curie: A Biography by Eve Curie Labouisse)

 

"All my life through, the new sights of Nature made me rejoice like a child." (Pierre Curie, 1923)

 

"...humanity also needs dreamers, for whom the disinterested development of an enterprise is so captivating that it becomes impossible for them to devote their care to their own material profit. Without doubt, these dreamers do not deserve wealth, because they do not desire it. Even so, a well-organized society should assure to such workers the efficient means of accomplishing their task, in a life freed from material care and freely consecrated to research." (Wikiquote)