ROMANCE OF RADIUM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20508, 8 March 1930, Page 2 (Supplement)

ROMANCE OF RADIUM.

SCIENCE AND LOVE.

WORLD-FAMOUS DISCOVERY.

WOMAN'S GREAT HONOUR.

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

- Tho couple became friendly, and gradually the grey-eyed girl with tho 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 endeavours to eutor the University of Cracow, and of her rejection on account of her sex. Pierre Curie learned how Professor Sklodowski set to work to teach his brilliant daughter in order that she should be able to ent-'jr tho 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 of Dan Cupid, Dame Science played tho role of romance-maker. They fell in love. But neither had money. All they possessed was their mutual love and their, passion for scientific : research. This seemed sufficient. They'took the plunge, married, and set up houso in a tiny apartment consisting of a living room, bedroom and kitchenette. Lor.g Hours in Laboratory. Every-day the husband and wife spent long , hours in tho laboratory. In the evenings they returned to pore over [books. Mine.' Curie, still little more than | a girl, for all her brilliant record as a student, prepared the simplo evening i meal; she tidied up, mended her .husband's socks and. nnderlinen. Then she I plunged into scientific work. Presently, however, Pierre Curie had to go alone eaeli morning to tho University. And a little later he was the proud father of a baby girl. The coming 'of the baby ended Mme. Curie's scientific work. But only for a while. Sho 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 I was in competent hands and once more the. two workers set forth together to J spend their days at tho bench of their laboratory. Later another child came—a girl. And | it was the same again. Tho slender young II wife, she was still in her early twenties, | redoubled her efforts, worked the harder, j in her tiny home/and in the University. She had long since graduated, and so brilliantly that despite her youth she had •been appointed a lecturer. This post ■brought a little more money into the !Curie home, but they remained poor. Pierre realised that his wife was a ,genius and, soul of honour, collaborated with her as junior partner. Is over a shade of professional jealousy marred that long and fruitful collaboration. Once when, as the result of her res3arches into the magnetic properties of metals in solution, Madame- Curie had discovered tho epoch-making, mysterious isubst-ance radium, her husband was incited to London. . Wife Awarded Nobel Prize. The scientific world was seething with excitement, at the .news from Paris. „ The Royal Society invited Pierre Curie to ad-dress.-it.. He.wrote in reply to point out that the discovery was liis wife's. The .Royal-Institute wrote,' too, asking him to read a paper upon tho discovery of radium. He replied courteously that there : musE he soriio-mistak(^ ; -'swiee : 'not--he, -hufehis wife, was the discoverer. The Royal Institute declined to hear Madame Curie. It might well have been possible for an egoist to have stolen the honour due to the woman who worked- beside him. It would have been easy, since the world would readily have believed that it was tho man and not the woman who had been the 'moving s'pirit iii the" joint investigations. But Pierre. Curie was jealous for his wife's scientific reputation. Mainly b'eeause" of-'-his-insistence upon her .work she was awarded the Nobel Prize. ;• ■. -. .. The discovery of.radium had.made, boih the Curies w6rld : fa'mous. Yet they declined to allow any intrusion upon the perfect harmony of their lives. The prejudices of the world against the woman genius were now overcome. Madamef Curie had received honorary degrees from many universities and other marks of distinction.