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Be less curious about people and more curious about ideas.

Marie Curie, as quoted in Eve Curie's Madame Curie, 1937

Mind

The story behind the card

In Madame Curie (1937), the biography by her younger daughter Eve, this is a line Marie Curie often gave reporters who wanted personal stories rather than science. A similar thought appears earlier, in her own 1923 book about her husband Pierre Curie, where she credits him with the belief that in science we should be interested in things, not persons. Pierre and Marie discovered polonium and radium together in 1898. After Pierre was killed in a street accident in 1906, Marie carried on alone and won a second Nobel Prize in 1911.

Türkçe oku
İnsanları daha az, fikirleri daha çok merak et.
Marie Curie, aktaran Eve Curie, Madame Curie, 1937

Küçük kızı Eve Curie'nin yazdığı Madame Curie (1937) biyografisine göre Marie Curie, bilim yerine özel hayatını soran gazetecilere bu sözü sık sık söylerdi. Benzer bir düşünce daha önce, Marie'nin eşi hakkında yazdığı 1923 tarihli Pierre Curie kitabında da geçer; orada bilimde kişilerle değil şeylerle ilgilenmek gerektiği inancını Pierre'e atfeder. Pierre ve Marie Curie 1898'de polonyum ve radyumu birlikte keşfetti. Pierre 1906'da bir sokak kazasında ölünce Marie çalışmalarını tek başına sürdürdü ve 1911'de ikinci Nobel Ödülü'nü kazandı.

Sources and further reading

Background reading: Marie Curie
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