From the Publisher
Praise for The Elements of Marie Curie:
Named a Best Book of the Year by Barnes and Noble (History)
Named a Best Science and Nature Book of the Year by the Guardian
“Ms. Sobel takes the familiar story of Marie Curie and crosscuts it. The journey of the Polish-French physicist who helped unlock the secrets of radioactivity was never straightforward, but it was also never taken alone. Woven into the account of Curie’s life are the lives of other women . . . What sets Ms. Sobel’s biography apart isn’t the timeline or the events of her subject’s life; it’s those women of science whose lives intersected with Curie’s, a cast of brilliant researchers and thinkers that the author skillfully weaves into her narrative.”—Brandy Schillace, Wall Street Journal
“A novel lens through which to view Curie’s story, and Sobel paints her tale with characteristic deftness and eloquence . . . Sobel’s great skill as a writer—as readers of her past works such as Longitude will know—is her ability to explain complex technical problems and the ways human ingenuity overcomes them.”—Jonathan Ford, Financial Times
“A fresh and feminist study of the pioneering Nobel laureate reveals her impact on the women she mentored and set on the path to prominence . . . [An] unabashedly feminist account of the great woman’s life . . . [Sobel’s] short and well-paced book succeeds in dispelling the dust that clings to some accounts of this most famous of lives and makes it fresh again.”—Laura Spinney, The Guardian
“Sobel crafts a deep and intimate glimpse of the woman behind the science . . . The Elements of Marie Curie is much more than a biography. It is a tribute to a woman who redefined what was possible for women in science, inspiring generations to follow her. Sobel’s elegant prose and thoughtful use of personal and historical accounts bring Curie to life, offering a nuanced portrait of a woman whose contributions to science were matched by quiet strength, humility and commitment to humanity. This is an essential read, capturing both her genius and her legacy.”—Chen Ly, New Scientist
“A fresh portrait of the icon and two-time Nobel laureate . . . Well-researched and compellingly written . . . The Elements of Marie Curie beautifully illuminates the science and the scientists that Curie devoted her life to developing . . . Sobel gives us a chance to share in the excitement and delight of the work that made Curie and her dozens of scientific offspring glow so brightly.”—Michelle Francl, Nature
“Sobel writes elegantly about science, unspooling Curie’s pursuits in the lab like a mystery.”—Kate Zernike, New York Times Book Review
“[Sobel] brings a new perspective, one that rhymes with contemporary understandings about how scientific discoveries are made . . . Introduces us to the legion of people, many of them women, who worked alongside Curie throughout her career, supporting, expanding and translating her work so that its significance and reputation was carried round the world.”—Kathryn Hughes, The Times (UK)
“A vivid narrative that uses Curie’s well-known story as scaffolding for tales of the brilliant young women who trained in her lab and became part of her scientific legacy . . . This superbly rendered portrait of Curie and her intellectual offspring could inspire many bright minds to follow in the scientist’s footsteps for generations to come.”—Vijaysree Venkatraman, Science
“[Sobel] beautifully elaborates the life and work of the most famous female scientist of all time . . . Sobel weaves the scientific and the personal together seamlessly . . . A beautifully written and elegantly structured tribute.”—Pat Sheil, Sydney Morning Herald
“Paints a human portrait not of an isolated genius, but of a woman who existed in and built scientific community . . . Sobel analyzes her subject with care and thorough detailed historical and personal accounts . . . An essential read for anyone who values works that highlight women in the sciences.”—Shelf Awareness (starred review)
“Preeminent science writer Sobel brings forward a new array of female scientists in this vital portrait of Marie Curie and the women who joined her in her world-altering Paris laboratory . . . As Sobel vividly tells their tales of valor, diligence, and brilliance, she fuses elements human and scientific to create a dramatic group portrait encompassing passion, struggle, poignancy, and triumph.”—Booklist (starred review)
“Admiring biography, by the noted popular historian of science, of the extraordinarily accomplished Madame Curie . . . A lucid, literate biography, celebrating a scientific exemplar who, for all her fame, deserves to be better known.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Paints a human portrait not of an isolated genius, but of a woman who existed in and built scientific community . . . Sobel analyzes her subject with care and through detailed historical and personal accounts . . . An essential read for anyone who values works that highlight women in the sciences.”—Shelf Awareness
“Marie Curie is one of the greatest scientists of all time and a pioneer for women. In this book Dava Sobel has brought her and those she inspired to life, with her characteristic accessible and scholarly writing. A book for our times celebrating both science and women.”—Paul Nurse, author of What Is Life?
“Marie Skłodowska Curie was unique, but her influence irradiated the futures of 45 women who worked in her laboratory. By restoring these pioneers to visibility, acclaimed historian Dava Sobel casts fresh light on the life and achievements of the first scientist to win two Nobel prizes.”—Dr. Patricia Fara, author of Science: A Four Thousand Year History
“Hard to put down! A wonderfully written biography of Marie Curie, that does not step away from the physics but also includes her life outside the lab, even including the black and white cat!”—Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell
Praise for Dava Sobel:
“Sobel is a master storyteller . . . What she has done, with her choice of excerpts and her strong sense of story, is bring a great scientist to life.”—New York Times, on Galileo’s Daughter
“[Sobel] shows herself a virtuoso at encapsulating the history and the politics of science. Her descriptions of Galileo's ideas... are pithy, vivid, and intelligible.”—Wall Street Journal, on Galileo’s Daughter
“Sobel does wonders clearly explaining scientific principles... [She] is a most original writer, with a reverence for history and storytelling.”—USA Today, on Galileo’s Daughter
“A gem of a book.”—New York Times, on Longitude
“A simple tale, brilliantly told.”—Washington Post Book World, on Longitude
“As much a tale of intrigue as it is of science . . . A book full of gems for anyone interested in history, geography, astronomy, navigation, clockmaking, and—not the least—plain old human ambition and greed.”—Philadelphia Inquirer, on Longitude
“Ms. Sobel writes with an eye for a telling detail and an ear for an elegant turn of phrase . . . A joy to read.”—Wall Street Journal, on The Glass Universe
“Sobel lucidly captures the intricate, interdependent constellation of people it took to unlock mysteries of the stars . . . The Glass Universe positively glows.”—NPR
“An elegant historical tale…[from] the master storyteller of astronomy.”—Boston Globe, on The Glass Universe
“Sobel mixes discussions of the most abstruse topics with telling glimpses of her subjects’ lives, in the process showing how scientific and social progress often go hand in hand.”—New Yorker, on The Glass Universe
“A peerless intellectual biography. The Glass Universe shines and twinkles as brightly as the stars themselves.”—The Economist
“Playful . . . Lyrical . . . A guided tour so imaginative that we forget we’re being educated as we’re being entertained.”—Newsweek, on The Planets
“[The Planets] lets us fall in love with the heavens all over again.”—New York Times Book Review
“[Sobel] has outdone her extraordinary talent for keeping readers enthralled . . . A splendid and enticing book.”—San Francisco Chronicle, on The Planets
Kirkus Reviews
2024-09-14
Admiring biography, by the noted popular historian of science, of the extraordinarily accomplished Madame Curie.
As of now, notes Sobel in her opening pages, Marie Curie, née Marya Salomea Slodowska, is “the only Nobel laureate ever decorated in two separate fields of science.” Sobel points to Curie’s brilliance across a range of disciplines, encouraged by her progressive father, a math teacher at a Warsaw high school, who encouraged all his children to enjoy the sciences but also read Dickens aloud to them in English, “translating the text into Polish on the fly.” Fortunately, at least some of the French scientific establishment was just as progressive, with the Sorbonne admitting women into medical school, and there Marya, now Marie, went, changing her study track to physics. That was a hard slog; as Sobel writes, she still had some catch-up work to do in math, and in French, a language not her own. Still, in 1893, two years after arriving in Paris, she came in first in her class and began studying for a doctorate, her topic the relatively unexciting “magnetic properties of dozens of varieties of steel.” Enter Pierre Curie, with whom Marie would have a binding love until his unfortunate death; modest to a fault, he made sure to credit her for her work, even if international organizations too often did not. Indeed, Sobel makes plain that Marie was Pierre’s equal and more, making critically important discoveries at the dawn of our understanding ofradioactivity—a term that Marie coined. Moreover, Sobel notes, though known as a martyr of science, dying of radiation poisoning in the form of aplastic anemia, Marie Curie should just as properly be recognized for helping dozens of women advance in the sciences.
A lucid, literate biography, celebrating a scientific exemplar who, for all her fame, deserves to be better known.
