ROMANCE OF RADIUM.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3464, 7 April 1930, Page 7

ROMANCE OF RADIUM.

SCIENCE AND LOVE

One day, Pierre Curie,, a student in the Faculty of Sciences, Paris, noticed a slim, dark-eyed girl siudent. She was obviously not Fernch, for she spoke with a strong foreign accent. She spoke but little, but she worked with a concentration that fascinated the French student of science.

The couple became friendly, and gradually the gi*cy-eyed girl with the deliberate, assured manner, told him her story, says Mr George Godwin in Tit Bits. She told him of her father, the Polish professor of her first endeavors % to enter the University of Cracow, and of her rejection on account of her sex. Pierre Curie learned how Professor Skiodowski set to work to teach his brilliant daughter in order that she ■should be able to enter the University of Paris.

The two students got into the habit of working in the great laboratory side by side. They compared notes, exchanged their Ideas on scientific subjects. Thus, in place trf Dau Cupid, Dame Science played the role of ro-mance-maker. They fell in love. But neither had money. All they possessed was their mutual -ove and their passion for scientific research. This seemed sufficient. They took the plunge, married, and set up house in a tiny apartment consisting of a living room, bedroom and kitchenette. Every day the husband and wife spent long hours in tin* laboratory. In the evenings they returned to pore over hooks. Mine. Curie, still little more than a girl, for all heir brilliant record as a student, prepared the simple evening meal; she tidied up, mended her husband's socks and underline)). Then she .plunged into scientific work. Presently, however, Pierre Curie had to go alone each morning to the University. And a little later be was the proud father of a baby girl.

Tiie coming of the baby ended Mine. Curie’s scientific work. But only for a while. She determined to do her duty as a mother and housewife; and she also set her heart on continuing her joint scientific work with her husband. The baby was in competent bands, and once more the two workers set forth together to spend their days at the bench of their laboratory. Later another child came—a girl. Aim it was the same -again. The slender young wife, she was still in her early twenties, redoubled her efforts, worked the harder, in her tiny home, and in the University, She had long since graduated, and so brilliantly that her youth she had been appointed a lecturer. This post brought a little more money into the Curie borne, but they remained poor. Pierre realised that his wife was a genius and. souj of honor, collaborated with' her as junior partner. Never a shade of professional jealousy marred that long and fruitful collaboration. Once, when, as the result of her researches into the magnetic properties of metals in solution, Madame Curie had discovered the epoch-making, mysterious substance radium, her husband was invited to London. ---AVife Awarded Nobel Prize.— The scientific world was seething with excitement at the news from Paris. The Royal Society invited Pierre Curie to address it. He wrote in reply to point out that the discovery was bis wife’s. The 'Koval Institute wrote, too, asking him to read a paper upon the discovery of radium. He replied courteously that' there must bo some mistake, since not lie, but bis wife, was the discoverer. The Royal Institute declined to bear .Madame Curie. it might well have been possible for an egoist to have stolen thci honor due to the woman who worked beside hint. It would have 1 been easy, Mine the world would, readily have believed that it was the man a'.id not the woman who had been the moving spirit in the joint investigations. But Pierre Curie was jealous for bis wife’s scientific reputation. Mainly because ol ids insistence upon her work she was awarded the Nobel Prize. The* discovery of radium bad made iiotb the (furies world-lamous. Yet they declined to allow any intrusion upon the perfect harmony of their lives. 'J ho prejudices ol the world against the woman genius were now overcome. Madame Curie had received honorary degrees from many universities and other marks of distinction.