The story of a Polish family (Maria was in fact Polish, her name before marrying was Maria Salomea Sklodowski), of the difficulties experienced during the Russian occupation of her homeland; nationalistic sentiments are well described and allow us to know a part of European history too often forgotten.
Marie was a teacher, as well as a scientist and a researcher. One of his phrases that I like to remember, because that's what I always say: "Do not trust what people teach you, and above all of what I teach you ...", put yourself in first person to experiment, try, deepen, so you can understand in the first person.
It is very interesting to describe the Parisian society and the sentiments of fellow scientists and professors towards a woman who, even if she was a genius, was still a woman.
The marriage with Pierre Curie and the definitive transfer to France, in Paris, the studies and the lab work that will lead the two spouses to win the Nobel Prize in physics in 1903, together with Becquerel, are just some of the events that saw Marie always protagonist.
The book also describes very well the studies carried out in those years on radioactivity by European scientists, I managed to compile a long list of people I hope to find and read in the future the biographies (Pierre Curie, Lord Kelvin, Becquerel, Rontgen, Thomson, Rutherford, are just a few).
Also very interesting was the description of the organization set up by Marie during the First World War, which saw her turn to the front to rescue the wounded, making use of her own radiological and technical skills and her closest collaborators.
I could go on for days to describe the life and work of this great scientist but I stop here, passing the witness ideally to those who want to deepen.
A great book about a great woman! Good reading.
Alessandro Rugolo
