IN 1943 Hollywood made a halfway decent film about Marie Curie, starring Greer Garson and Walter Pidgeon as Marie and her husband, Pierre. An unusual occurrence for Hollywood, which rarely tackles scientists unless they are mad and bent on world domination. But the attractions of the story are obvious: early difficulties followed by world fame, love and tragedy.
With ambitions to be a scientist, Marie Sklodowska was faced with hardship after the Russian occupation of her native Poland in the 19th century. There was little family money available. She took menial jobs, read as much science as she could to educate herself, and won entry to the Sorbonne in Paris, where she met the gentle and reclusive Pierre Curie.
When the discovery of the mysterious X-ray was announced, she became fascinated to find out more about such radiation and was soon at work on uranium. She found a strange, much ...
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