Marie Curie Book

[Misfiteverywhere]

Hi, I’m hoping someone here can help me. I want a book about Marie Curie’s life and work. There’s several out there but can anyone recommend one please? I’m a scientist and understand physics, hence my interest.

I don't know whether this is what you want or whether you want one which is just about Marie Curie. I'm not a scientist by background, but I found Dava Sobel's The Elements of Marie Curie, which is a biography of her with a lot of but also looks at the work of some of the physicists she mentored, many of them women, really interesting. There is also a lot about the debates and discoveries in physics of her time, and communications/networks of scientists internationally, and I think someone with more knowledge of science could appreciate this better than me, probably.

I also liked Marie Curie and Her Daughters published a few years ago.

I think the only other one I've read is a book written for older kids, perhaps preteen, The Radium Woman by Eleanor Doorly. I think I still have my copy upstairs but haven't tried rereading as an adult....

Thank you, I’ll start with your first one, sounds like what I’m looking for- thank you- I wasn’t sure I’d get a reply! I’m interested in women in history as they’ve often been overlooked.

My Amazon purchase history tells me I've read this one.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0471273910?ref_=ppx_hzod_title_dt_b_fed_asin_title_0_1

I can't remember much about it, but I'd just read as much as I could find, if you google there's quite a few books. I'm professionally qualified in radioactivity and radiation protection and have taken a particular interest in early work of Marie Curie and other radiation scientists.

There's also at least one film called Radioactive starring Rosamund Pike - I do remember another one too but I can't remember what is was called.

If you're ever in Paris, her lab is a museum that you can visit. If you're not already aware, you might want to read up on the radium girls, awfully sad but at the same time interesting.

I saw the Pike film past week but found it rather dull. Some of these books look good, though.

I've read an interesting biography of Marie Curie but can't remember the author and Amazon just suggests kids books.

But if you are interested in biographies of female scientists then I'd recommend the following:

Dorothy Hodgkin: A Life by Georgina Ferry. The only British female scientist to win a Nobel prize.

The Age of Wonder by Richard Holmes. This is a general history of the start of professional science but has a lot of information about Caroline Herschal which is really interesting.

Check out "Lise Meitner: A Life in Physics"

She's the woman for whom the best case of deserving a Nobel can be made, besides the women who won the Nobel, of course.

That sounds as if it might be interesting. Lise Meitner is included in the bio I mentioned above, as she worked for a time in Marie Curie's lab. She's also been discussed in a couple of radio programmes recently, I think one might have been Radio 4's Great Lives.

Thanks for all the suggestions. I’m currently working on through history podcasts on BBC sounds so will have a look on there too!