Re: Marie Curie

[bbusby@umich.edu]

Hi All,

Also commenting on Mme. Curie. She died at the age of 66, which I belive
at that time was a little above the average life expectancy (1934). I
have no doubt that she died of the effects of radiation, but at what
dose is hard to say. Perrie was run over by a milk truck, and in the
book (Bio by Eva), a discription of his head being smashed open tends to
indicate that radiation had little to do with his death. Mme. had
cateracts operated on a few years prior to her death. 

The book by Eva was written in 1937, but the English version was
translated a little later, in 1938 and published by Double-day in 1939.
I have the English version. Flowery but not too bad. Women in science
have a hard time now, cant imagine what it was like for her then. What
women up till then can you compare her to? As for reports of her using
her infirmity at meetings, while it is possible, I would also suspect
professional jealousy, sexism, nationalism and a few other "isms" might
be flavoring history here, depending on who was reporting it. 

I was wondering if anyone has ever tried to estimate her dose? Or if any
samples of her bone tissue were take and analyzed for radium?

Regards,

Bruce Busby
http://www.umich.edu/~bbusby/