Conversation

Today's the birthday of Marie Skłodowska Curie (1867-1934), pioneering physicist, double nobel laureate, passionate human, Polish - and, for some reason, a hero of my teenage years, as I dreamt of one day being a scientist myself. Because she was more than just a technician or bloodless theorist, but had values and passion. Of course back then we had mainly the soft-washed accounts. More recent, honest accounts speak also of some quite steely edginess. Still relevant in subtle ways, 90 years on.