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A ciência moderna foi historicamente estabelecida como atividade masculina, concepção mantida até o século XX, a despeito da crescente participação das mulheres nas atividades científicas. Considerando a importância dos livros didáticos na educação escolar, este trabalho investiga como os livros didáticos de ciências apresentam as mulheres nas ciências no recorte temporal 1980–2022. Foram contabilizadas em coleções didáticas de três grandes editoras brasileiras todas as citações textuais e imagéticas de mulheres e homens cientistas, e analisadas via semiótica peirceana as imagens das cientistas mulheres. Resultados apontaram incremento nas referências de mulheres cientistas a partir dos anos 2000, porém sempre em número muito menor que as citações de homens. A análise semiótica das imagens permitiu identificar quatro categorias de representação de mulheres cientistas: reais (imagens de cientistas devidamente identificadas); anônimas (fotografias sem identificação); fictícias (representações figurativas de personagens criadas) e ocultadas (imagens fotográficas/pictóricas de cientistas reais sem identificação nominal). Cerca de metade das imagens situa-se na categoria reais (49%); as demais distribuem-se em: anônimas (31%), fictícias (15%) e ocultadas (5%). Apesar da crescente presença de mulheres cientistas nos livros didáticos do século XXI, o baixo número de citações, assim como as formas como são apresentadas, colabora para a manutenção da concepção masculina da ciência.

Copyright of Mersin University School of Medicine Lokman Hekim Journal of History of Medicine & Folk Medicine is the property of Mersin University School of Medicine and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this historical perspective, we focus on selected discoveries that Albert Frenkel (1919-2015) made all by himself - single-handedly - which is the discovery of photophosphorylation and NAD reduction in anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria. Then, we present various aspects of his research life through his unpublished letters with some key scientists in his research field. To give a glimpse of his personal life, we have also provided some photographs.

Copyright of Revista Fotocinema is the property of Revista Fotocinema and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Marie Curie es una de las figuras más relevantes no solo en el ámbito científico, sino también históricamente por múltiples motivos diferentes. Esto ha propiciado que el cine y la televisión durante décadas hayan retratado su vida centrándose en uno u otros aspectos. Esta investigación analiza doce producciones audiovisuales en las que se emplea en mayor o menor medida la ficción para recrear la trayectoria de esta científica, dividida en cuatro temas: infancia, trabajo científico, matrimonio y vida personal (Langevin, enfermera e hijas). El estudio de estos campos dentro de cada una de las películas, series y documentales que conforman la muestra revelan interesantes divergencias entre la persona y el personaje de Marie Curie. A su vez, se observan diferentes enfoques según el público al que se han dirigido y el contexto en el que se han realizado estas producciones. Se concluye que la figura de Curie y sus heterogéneas aristas han sido bien aprovechadas por la mayor parte de la filmografía analizada para ir más allá de la divulgación de su trabajo científico y retratarla, en muchos casos, como alguien adelantada a su época e, incluso, avanzada para la actualidad.

In this historical perspective, we focus on selected discoveries that Albert Frenkel (1919–2015) made all by himself – single-handedly – which is the discovery of photophosphorylation and NAD reduction in anoxygenic photosynthetic bacteria. Then, we present various aspects of his research life through his unpublished letters with some key scientists in his research field. To give a glimpse of his personal life, we have also provided some photographs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to present descriptions of nurses and first female physcians in Serbia. I used different types of literary genres and applied methods of New Historcism, Literary Theory and Feminist Theories. The authors of these descriptions were women and men of different social status: princess/queen, nurse, actress, physician; police officer and a prison accountant. The princess Natalie Obrenović and the actress Milka Grgurova described the work of Serbian and Russian nurses in different places during the Serbo-Turkish War in 1876. Later in her memoir, Queen Natalie Obrenović wrote about a big humanitarian role of Belgrade women during the Serbo-Bulgarian War in 1885. The first Serbian police officer and one of the first Serbian female physicians described first female physicians in their diaries while Milutin A. Popović depicted compassionate nurses in the Album of female prisoners. These literary works have been keeping facts about important roles of Martha von Sabinin, a renowned Russian worker who in the past received many Serbian medals, but in the present has remained forgotten. Literature allows completer knowledge and a better understanding about the history of nurses and international bonds, but it also discovers counteractions. For example, Queen Natalie had a leadership role in organizing Belgrade women as nurses during the Serbo-Bulgarian War in 1885. These facts were not mentioned in the memoirs by a Head of the Army Medical Corps, Vladan Đorđević. While male authors shortly described Serbian female medical doctors and nurses, female authors provided more details in self-documenting their role and the role of women from other countries, especially Martha von Sabinin. Some important similarities between diaries by Draga Ljočić and Marie Curie are found and presented. The author of the paper stressed the need of thinking across disciplinary perspectives and borders.

Edgar Fahs Smith (1854-1928) was one of the great American chemists. He has done a lot of experimental studies. He carried out researches in the fields of organic, inorganic, and analytical chemistry, elektrochemistry and mineralogy. He developed the rotating anode. He wrote many works in the field of history of American chemistry. The purpose of this paper is to familiarize readers with the important events in the life of Smith. In addition, his participation in the preparation of the first visit of Marie Curie (1867-1934) to the USA in 1921 is described and literature on his selected articles and books is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

La radiactividad como fenómeno físico, ha traído beneficios y desaciertos al mundo científico y a la humanidad. Su descubrimiento atribuido principalmente a Antoine Henri Becquerel, Marie Sklodowska-Curie y a Pierre Curie, quienes a finales del siglo XIX observaron y clasificaron los elementos e isótopos radiactivos uranio, torio, polonio y radio. Estos elementos en su estado natural ionizan el aire que los circunda y son capaces de producir grandes cantidades de energía, de ahí su aplicación en centrales nucleares. En el año internacional de la tabla periódica, es propicio recordar la obra de Marie Sklodowska -Curie, quien dedicó su vida a los estudios sobre la radioactividad, incluso murió por estar expuesta a ella sin protección. El presente trabajo está dedicado a su memoria, una breve biografía y sus contribuciones científicas, los efectos cuestionados por el uso de isótopos radiactivos, algo de historia sobre la radiactividad y su relación con la tabla periódica de los elementos.

Embora a indústria cultural se preocupe, muitas vezes, em concentrar esforços para proporcionar um simples divertimento, as obras cinematográficas podem ir além do entretenimento e oferecer possibilidades incomensuráveis de reflexão de temas no campo científico, tecnológico e social. Por isso, o objetivo deste artigo é analisar a obra cinematográfica Radioactive procurando compreender contribuições desse filme para a alfabetização científica e tecnológica da sociedade. Utiliza-se a técnica de Análise de Conteúdo de Bardin. O filme mostra que a compreensão sobre a estrutura do átomo estava em pleno desenvolvimento e revela um pouco da dificuldade para se entender, naquele momento, a natureza dos raios emitidos pelos átomos instáveis mencionados por Marie Curie. A obra cinematográfica permite refletir visões distorcidas da C&T como a ideia individualista e elitista que ignora o trabalho coletivo dos cientistas e que entremostra a ciência como sendo uma atividade de homens brancos que estariam aptos a decidir temas sociais que envolvem C&T. O filme parece nos deixar uma série de mensagens, mas podemos destacar aquela que valoriza a democratização da ciência e, principalmente, com a participação necessária da mulher como sujeito do processo.

• J. D. Wetherspoon is a popular UK pub chain that has an active and deliberate engagement with history. • A prominent supporter of Brexit, it presents history through a distinctly localised lens. • Understanding its impact is important in understanding the wider public understanding of history. J. D. Wetherspoon is a popular pub chain in the United Kingdom. Despite its prominence in British cultural life and active and deliberate engagement with history, it has received scant academic attention. Here, this engagement with history is explored with a particular focus on how Wetherspoon approaches the history of science. This paper highlights the focus of Wetherspoon on local history and, in particular, on local exceptionalism, before discussing how such an understanding of history informs wider debates—such as Wetherspoon's support of Brexit (the UK's withdrawal from the European Union). It contributes to understandings of what constitutes popular history and, through doing so, emphasises the need for historians to engage with historical narratives outside the academy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

L’uso delle arti visive, quali il fumetto, rappresenta un mezzo straordinario sia a fini divulgativi che per l’insegnamento stesso nell’ambito delle diverse discipline. Questo articolo descrive l’esperienza maturata nel corso della stesura di un fumetto di divulgazione scientifica: “Marie Curie e la radioattività”, mettendo in luce, in particolare, le potenzialità e le criticità dell’interazione che si è sviluppata fra il disegnatore e l’autore scientifico del fumetto.

This article explores how Lauren Redniss’s Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout (2010) uses expressive drawings, lettering, layouts, tableaus, colour, photographs and archival documents to challenge traditional biographical conventions. Drawing on art history, comics studies, feminist science history, and biography theory, it proposes that Radioactive initially invites readers into the pleasures of intimate knowledge of a complex female figure through alluring hand-drawn visual sequences that recreate both Curie’s era and aura. However, this romanticized and even eroticized view of the subject shifts as the graphic biography of Marie Curie transforms into the graphic biography of her primary discovery, the element radium, and the later twentieth century tragedies of atomic warfare and nuclear fallout. The article concludes that Radioactive is an experiment in graphic biography that highlights how the border between the seen and the unseen cuts across atomic science, biographical narrative, and visual storytelling.

Marie Curie holds iconic status both within the scientific community and in the wider cultural imagination and collective memory. The first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize and the only woman to achieve such an honor twice, Curie is widely celebrated as a female pioneer in the sciences and is held up as a model for all, but particularly women, to emulate. She is revered not only as a ground-breaking scientist, but also as a devoted wife and mother who fostered intellectual passion in her own children, one of whom became the second woman to be honored with the Nobel Prize in Science. Echoing Eva Hemmungs Wirten, we argue that the evolution of Curie’s status over time offers an opportunity to use meta-biography to understand the layered nature of her reputation. We draw on Gary Alan Fine’s theory of reputational entrepreneurship to understand her legacy as a product of collective historical memory. Curie’s legacy was not pre-determined by the fact that she was a successful scientist; in fact, she was shunned by the public in France in 1911 after it was revealed that she, a widow, had engaged in an affair with a fellow married scientist. A meta-biographical analysis reveals considerable effort was put into reputation building by her Curie herself, her commercial sponsor, and family members. To ignore the earlier iterations of her reputation is to underestimate the challenges she faced as a woman in male-dominated science and in a society that judged her by a sexual double standard. Meta-biography, in conjunction with theories of intellectual reputation building and collective memory, allows us to unearth the complicated layers of Curie’s story. It also tells us a great deal about the [sexist] society in which Curie and her supporters had to forge her reputation.

• The ICRP system is mature, integrated, self-consistent and reduced staff dose limits by a factor of 30–50 over the years. • The International Congress of Radiology influence on the culture and governance of ICRP is profound and still lives on. • ICRP recommendations strongly support protection of workers and the public, with less emphasis on patients. • The ICRP approach to recommendations on medical exposures is often hands-off, e.g. with justification or pregnancy. • The social sciences and humanities have been notably absent from the commission membership and its programme of work. Starting from Röntgen's discovery and the first radiograph of his wife's hand, the curtain was raised on a new technique with remarkable possibilities for contributing to human health. While growth in applications proceeded rapidly, it was accompanied by significant harms to those involved and by inappropriate opportunistic application. This paper places the attempts to deal with the harms and inappropriate activities side by side with the positive developments. It attempts a narrative on the development of medical radiation protection over the 125-year period and places it in the context of a commentary on governance and ethics. The substance of the narrative is based on the recommendations of ICRP as they developed and altered over time. The governance commentary is based on assessing the independence of ICRP and its attention to medical exposures. In terms of ethics, the recommendations at each stage are reviewed in the light of values that are deemed appropriate to both medical ethics and radiation protection. The paper, while celebrating Röntgen-125, also hopefully provides a perspective for discussion as ICRP's centenary in 2028 approaches. This is an important part of ensuring continued acceptance and confident use of X-Rays, and helps underwrite the possibility of further developments in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

I re-examine the raw data of the measurements of the half-life of 210Po from the Romanian physicist Ştefania Mărăcineanu's doctoral thesis, performed at the Institut du Radium, 1921–1923, under the supervision of Marie Curie. The half-life values reported in the thesis show relatively large divergences and a possible dependence on the (metallic) support on which the Po source was deposited. These findings influenced Mărăcineanu's subsequent independent research, and later compelled her to claim priority for the discovery of artificial radioactivity. The present analysis of these data, performed with the least-squares method, certifies the outstanding accuracy of the experimental measurements by providing values with good agreement between the different series of measurements and an average value that is close to the currently adopted half-life value of this isotope. On the other hand, this analysis changes our perspective by showing that the rudimentary procedure Mărăcineanu used to processing the data introduced errors in her reported values, which favored a poor interpretation of the results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Filamentous fungi are fascinating microorganisms. One of the reasons why it is so worthwhile to take a closer look at them is their capacity to produce secondary metabolites. Some of these substances have the potential to be of great use for mankind, such as it was the case with penicillin and its discovery in 1928. Almost a century later, the situation in healthcare could possibly turn back to the state before the development of the first antibiotics. Due to an overuse of antibiotics we are facing a surge of multiresistant bacteria that are not inhibited by any of the currently known drugs. That was part of the background why a European research project was launched in October 2013, titled “Quantitative Biology for Fungal Secondary Metabolite Producers”, or “QuantFung”. Fifteen young scientists embarked on a new phase in their career, moving to new work environments within Europe and dedicating their work lives intensively to the quest for useful secondary metabolites. After 4 years, the QuantFung project concluded in October this year. In this commentary, we aim to convey what it means to work in this field of fungal biotechnology and how important it is to improve the efficiency of the research therein. We introduce five out of the fifteen fellows at length and let them have their say about the adventure of science, euphoric moments, prospects and doubts. We also raise questions about the current state of research in academia, something the QuantFung fellows experienced first-hand. Being a scientist often goes beyond earning money to make one’s living. This is why we also reflect on aspects of the meaning of work in our western society, where production for profit’s sake is a main driver. For that we refer to one of the most distinguished thinkers of the twentieth century, to Hannah Arendt.

The Curie Foundation will celebrate its 100-year anniversary in 2021. Although it was founded to centralize the production and the use of radon against cancer, the Curie Foundation's creation is primarily the result of a legal obstacle preventing the Institut du Radium to ensure such a mission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Review of the book “Marie Curie's classes: registred by Isabelle Chavannes in 1907” Editora da Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, 2007, 1. ed. 136p. ISBN: 978-85-314-1003-1

O presente trabalho tem por objetivo discutir sobre as contribuições de um caso histórico sobre a cientista Marie Curie para favorecer reflexões sobre Natureza da Ciência por parte de professores em formação à luz da perspectiva de Allchin (2013) para o ensino contextualizado e funcional de Natureza da Ciência (NC). O caso histórico foi aplicado em uma turma de estudantes do curso Licenciatura em Química de uma universidade pública. Todas as aulas relacionadas à implementação desta proposta foram registradas em áudio e vídeo. A partir das reflexões explicitadas pelos licenciandos ao longo deste processo, discutimos sobre a relevância da proposta para nortear discussões sobre NC importantes para favorecer uma compreensão funcional sobre ciência.

Our research intends to examine representations of female scientists in 14 novels, non-fiction, fiction and picture books and published in France between 2010 and 2019 for 0 to 15 year olds. Based on qualitative research, we want to show how female scientists are currently portrayed in children's books. In fact, in children's literature, we only seem to remember the famous scientist Marie Curie and her husband Pierre Curie or their daughter Irène Joliot-Curie. However, is it possible to present other science heroines to children? So, we want to give an overview of professional women in science in picture books, non-fiction and fiction books, even if they are a minority. That is why we want to describe stereotypes in the language and pictures and how a young female reader could imagine becoming a great famous scientist in the future, because this is not only reserved for boys. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The process of reconstruction of Marie Curie's life through her biographies allowed to turn the scientist into a national icon, a quasi-mythical figure. However, the accumulation and repetition of inaccuracies extracts the scientist from her historical context. This article offers an analysis of the impact of the biographies on the understanding of the social parameters that allowed Marie Curie to access the career that was hers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A review of The Marie Curie Sequence (2017), a collection of poems by Michelle Reale exploring the life and work of Marie Curie.

Marie and Pierre Curie's decision not to patent the discovery (1898) and later isolation (1902) of radium is perhaps the most famous of all disinterested decisions in the history of science. To choose publishing instead of patenting and openness instead of enclosure was hardly a radical choice at the time. Traditionally, we associate academic publishing with 'pure science' and Mertonian ideals of openness, sharing and transparency. Patenting on the other hand, as a byproduct of 'applied science' is intimately linked to an increased emphasis and dependency on commercialization and technology transfer within academia. Starting from the Curies' mythological decision I delineate the contours of an increasing convergence of the patent and the paper (article) from the end of the nineteenth-century until today. Ultimately, my goal is to suggest a few possible ways of addressing the hybrid space that today constitute the terrain of late modern science and intellectual property.

Marie Sklodowska-Curie, an extraordinary woman, a Polish scientist who lived and worked in France, led to the development of nuclear energy and the treatment of cancer. She was the laureate of two Nobel Prizes, the first woman in Europe who obtained the degree of Doctor of Science and opened the way for women to enter fields which had been previously reserved for men only. As a result of her determination and her love of freedom, she has become an icon for many female scientists active in radiation sciences. They are successors of Maria Curie and without the results of their work, improvement in radiation oncology will not be possible. Many of them shared some elements of Maria Curie's biography, like high ethical and moral standards, passionate dedication to work, strong family values, and scientific collaboration with their husbands. The significance of Tikvah Alper, Alma Howard, Shirley Hornsey, Juliana Denekamp, Helen Evans, Eleanor Blakely, Elizabeth L. Travis, Fiona Stewart, Andree Dutreix, Catharine West, Peggy Olive, Ingela Turesson, Penny Jeggo, Irena Szumiel, Eleonor Blakely, Sara Rockwell and Carmel Mothersill contribution to radiation oncology is presented. All the above mentioned ladies made significant contribution to the development of radiotherapy (RT) and more efficient cancer treatment. Due to their studies, new schedules of RT and new types of ionizing radiation have been applied, lowering the incidence of normal tissue toxicity. Their achievements herald a future of personalized medicine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marie Curie y su esposo Pierre, fueron los descubridores de la radioactividad, junto a los elementos polonio y radio. Marie dedicó más de treinta y cinco años de su carrera científica al estudio de esta entidad. Con tenacidad y esfuerzo logró destacarse en una época donde el machismo y la xenofobia estaban presentes en todas partes. Por sus méritos, fue la primera persona en recibir dos premios Nobel: el de Física en 1903 y el de Química en 1911. Para los autores de esta publicación es un orgullo traer nuevamente a la luz la vida y obra de esta extraordinaria mujerMarie Curie and her husband Pierre, were the discoverers of radioactivity and also the polonium and radium elements. Marie dedicated thirthy five years of her scientific career to the study of this subject. With her tenacity and effort, she managed to stand out in a time where you could find sexism and xenophobia in every corner. Because of her merits she was the first person in receive two Nobel prizes: Physics in 1903 and Chemistry in 1911. For the authors of this publication it is an honor to bring this extraordinary women's life and work back to life

Biographies of scientists occupy a liminal space, highly popular with general readers but questioned in academia. Nonetheless, in recent years, historians of science have not only embraced the genre with more enthusiasm and less guilt, they have also turned to the metabiography in order to renew the study and story of scientists’ roles. This essay focuses on Marie Curie, the world’s most famous female scientist, in order to unpack some of the theoretical and methodological claims of the science biography, and especially to address the sexing mechanisms at play in the construction of the biographical subject. Pierre Curie (1923), Marie’s biography of her husband Pierre, paid tribute to her dead husband and collaborator, but also allowed Curie a legitimate outlet to construct her own persona and legacy. Categories such as personhood, person, and persona are not only central to the biography genre but also are essential to the sense of self and self-fashioning of scientists. Looking at how Marie Curie negotiated these categories in Pierre Curie not only gives new insight into Curie’s self-fashioning strategies but may also shed some light on the more general analytical lacunae of the science biography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marie and Pierre Curie's decision not to patent the discovery (1898) and later isolation (1902) of radium is perhaps the most famous of all disinterested decisions in the history of science. To choose publishing instead of patenting and openness instead of enclosure was hardly a radical choice at the time. Traditionally, we associate academic publishing with "pure science" and Mertonian ideals of openness, sharing and transparency. Patenting on the other hand, as a byproduct of "applied science" is intimately linked to an increased emphasis and dependency on commercialization and technology transfer within academia. Starting from the Curies' mythological decision I delineate the contours of an increasing convergence of the patent and the paper (article) from the end of the nineteenth-century until today. Ultimately, my goal is to suggest a few possible ways of addressing the hybrid space that today constitute the terrain of late modern science and intellectual property. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper presents life stories of the two greatest women physicists - Marie Sklodowska Curie, a Polish physicist and the only woman double Nobel Prize laureate, and Lise Meitner, an Austrian Jew physicist, from whom the Nobel Prize was unjustly withheld. The events, dreams and memories of these two women, pacifists and scientists, during an imaginary but likely to happen night spent at the frontline during the First World War, are presented in parallel with the events and their professional encounters in real life. Paradoxically, the scientific discoveries of Marie Curie and Lise Meitner, two sincere believers in the possibility of human understanding and peace, enabled the construction of the most terrifying weapon world was ever faced with - the atomic bomb. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

O presente artigo visa fazer uma releitura do "Caso Marie Curie" sob o signo do acontecimento. O intuito, assim, é explorar relações constituintes da controvérsia que se desdobrou no prêmio Nobel de 1903, que laureou a descoberta da radioatividade e de elementos radioativos. A porta de entrada, para tal empreitada, serão as mediações entre as relações de gênero e os não-humanos mobilizados nos laboratórios. Baseado nessas mediações, descrevo a diferença de possibilidades masculino/feminina em fazer-existir a Natureza em relação ao poder que a definição de gênero dá a uns em detrimento de outros, mas também como ao fazer-existir a radioatividade constituiu-se um devir, que fez essa relação gaguejar, mudando-a de sentido. O "Caso Marie Curie" torna imediatamente inseparável dois domínios: tanto o envolvimento das relações de gênero na produção científica quanto o envolvimento da ciência nas relações de gênero. Esse acontecimento ressoa para abordagens antropológicas e feministas da ciência. Assim, coloco-as em discussão na medida em que as relações de poder fizeram-me respeitar o devir que o ofício da cientista pôs em cena: a radioatividade.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the particle accelerator operating at CERN, is probably the most complex and ambitious scientific project ever accomplished by humanity. The sheer size of the enterprise, in terms of financial and human resources, naturally raises the question whether society should support such costly basic-research programs. I address this question by first reviewing the process that led to the emergence of Big Science and the role of large projects in the development of science and technology. I then compare the methodologies of Small and Big Science, emphasizing their mutual linkage. Finally, after examining the cost of Big Science projects, I highlight several general aspects of their beneficial implications for society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On May 11, 1921, the world’s most famous female scientist, Marie Curie, began a 10-week tour of the United States. Curie’s biographers have argued that instead of portraying Curie as a scientist, the American press’ emphasis on Curie’s role as a mother, widow, and healer created a mythic Curie with traditional female virtues that served to make this unconventional woman less threatening to traditional values. This article complicates that approach by considering coverage outside the daily press, such as magazines, which emphasized Curie’s accomplishments as a scientist. Tracing the development of Curie’s story in the press, the article offers insight into the way coverage of Curie’s trip both shaped and was shaped by notions of women’s place in science and American society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: This paper describes the instrumentation developed by Pierre and Jacques Curie in the 1880s to perform very precise charge and low current measurements. Using this set-up, which is nearly as precise as most present digital electronic charge measurement apparatuses, Jacques Curie established the absorption current law for insulating materials. A detailed analysis is made of the experimental path followed by Marie Curie from the choice of her research subject to her first discoveries, using the same Curie quartz–electrometer set-up. From the Curie “discovery notebooks” and a modern reconstitution of this experiment, it is possible to reconstruct what were her main experimental difficulties concerning the measurements of the picoampere leakage currents produced by the radioactive rays. We will underline that the availability for Marie Curie of a precise ready-to-use electrostatic measurement technique played an important, if not decisive, part in her career and her research. A more general issue addressed here is that laboratory techniques are not only a prerequisite of modern scientific work, but in a great part influence knowledge production. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

I provide a tour of Madrid, focusing especially on physical institutions that were created during the 19th and 20th centuries.These include the Astronomical Observatory close to the Prado Museum, which itself was conceived as a home for the Royal Academy of Sciences but became instead a world-famous art museum in 1819, leaving the Royal Academy of Sciences without a permanent home until 1866.The Laboratory of Physical Researches was created in 1910, and under the direction of Blas Cabrera (1878–1945), who also held a professorship at the Universidad Central, it fostered most of the Spanish research in physics at the time, in particular the famous spectroscopic researches of Miguel A. Catalán (1894–1957). Nearby were the so-called Transatlantico building and the Students’ Residence where Albert Einstein (1879–1955), for example, lectured in 1923, and which together continue to serve as a major cultural center in Madrid. Later, the physical laboratory was replaced by the National Institute of Physics and Chemistry, which was constructed with funds from the Rockefeller Foundation and inaugurated in 1932. A new University City with its Faculty of Sciences also was constructed on the northwestern outskirts of Madrid, but almost all of its buildings were totally destroyed during the devastating Spanish Civil War of 1936–1939. It was reconstructed after the war and became home, for example, to Spain’s first nuclear reactor, which achieved criticality in 1958. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Résumé: L’histoire des sciences, notamment enseignée au grand public, est souvent un récit trop linéaire, reconstruit postérieurement, à la lumière des développements ultérieurs en se focalisant essentiellement sur l’histoire d’un cheminement intellectuel. Un facteur essentiel est souvent négligé : celui des conditions matérielles et sociales de production de la science, qui incluent aussi bien la construction de réseaux et la recherche de financements, que l’instrumentation. Les travaux récents en histoire des sciences sur Marie Curie montrent ainsi que la découverte du radium et les premières années d’histoire de la radioactivité doivent être remises en perspective. Nous présentons ici un aspect de ces travaux, à savoir que le fait de disposer d’une technique de mesure bien particulière a joué un rôle essentiel dans l’orientation initiale des travaux de Marie Curie sur les rayons, et a ensuite contribué à imprimer une originalité particulière, pendant plusieurs décennies, à son laboratoire. Cette technique est fondée sur la mesure précise de la charge électrique produite dans l’air par la matière radioactive, et est issue directement des travaux de Jacques et Pierre Curie, sur la piézoélectricité et les électromètres. Il nous a paru intéressant de la reconstituer, et de la présenter à la Société Française d’Electrostatique. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We present the life and work of the Norwegian scientist Ellen Gleditsch (1879-1968) in the early era of radioactivity. From 1907-1912, Gleditsch worked as Marie Curie’s assistant in the Laboratoire Curie in Paris on the alleged copper-lithium radioactive transformation and on the radiumuranium ratio, as well as studying chemistry and related subjects at the Sorbonne. Later,in 1913-1914, she worked in Bertram Boltwood’s laboratory at Yale University on the half-life of radium. Gleditsch also was concerned with academic opportunities for women, and she became the president of the International Federation of University Women. As a professor, the second female professor in Norway, she initiated a research group on radioactivity at the University of Oslo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Historical participation by women in science and technology has been persistent but with inconsistent patterns because of the social, economic, and intellectual obstacles that have stood in their way. This account of women's initiatives and successes in 20th-century United States begins with early 20th-century involvement and suggests the subsequent ways in which the inroads of that period have influenced later struggles and strategies. Women of distinction like Marie Curie, Anna Botsford Comstock, and Ellen Swallow Richards established possibilities but also standards of exceptionalism. Data suggest that the number of women in most areas of science has continued to grow, in fits and starts, over the past half century. Nonetheless, quantitative surveys and individual stories indicate that the gender gap—in terms of opportunities, salaries, and career advancement—remains a challenge that needs to be addressed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Marie Curie y su esposo Pierre, fueron los descubridores de la radioactividad, junto a los elementos polonio y radio. Marie dedicó más de treinta y cinco años de su carrera científica al estudio de esta entidad. Con tenacidad y esfuerzo logró destacarse en una época donde el machismo y la xenofobia estaban presentes en todas partes. Por sus méritos, fue la primera persona en recibir dos premios Nobel: el de Física en 1903 y el de Química en 1911. Para los autores de esta publicación es un orgullo traer nuevamente a la luz la vida y obra de esta extraordinaria mujer

Madame Curie was awarded her second Nobel Prize in 1911 and on this occasion it was in chemistry. Honoring the centennial of this event, the world celebrates chemistry in 2011. Chemistry serves the world every minute every year and the world reciprocates with paying attention to this often cursed but uniquely useful science during this particular year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the years, the Curie Museum, located in the former Curie Laboratory of the Radium Institute, has become a museum of the history of science. Its scientific collections are preserved within the current Institut Curie, and are located at two different sites. Our article offers a retrospective account of how this heritage ensemble was formed and gives an overview of the current situation.