Synopses & Reviews
In many ways, Marie Curie represents modern science. Her considerable lifetime achievementsand#151;the first woman to be awarded a Nobel Prize, the only woman to be awarded the Prize in two fields, and the only person to be awarded Nobel Prizes in multiple sciencesand#151;are studied by schoolchildren across the world. When, in 2009, the
New Scientist carried out a poll for the and#147;Most Inspirational Female Scientist of All Time,and#8221; the result was a foregone conclusion: Marie Curie trounced her closest runner-up, Rosalind Franklin, winning double the number of Franklinand#8217;s votes. She is a role model to women embarking on a career in science, the pride of two nationsand#151;Poland and Franceand#151;and, not least of all, a European Union brand for excellence in science.
Making Marie Curie explores what went into the creation of this icon of science. It is not a traditional biography, or one that attempts to uncover the and#147;realand#8221; Marie Curie. Rather, Eva Hemmungs Wirtand#233;n, by tracing a career that spans two centuries and a world war, provides an innovative and historically grounded account of how modern science emerges in tandem with celebrity culture under the influence of intellectual property in a dawning age of information. She explores the emergence of the Curie persona, the information culture of the period that shaped its development, and the strategies Curie used to manage and exploit her intellectual property. How did one create and maintain for oneself the persona of scientist at the beginning of the twentieth century? What special conditions bore upon scientific women, and on married women in particular? How was French identity claimed, established, and subverted? How, and with what consequences, was a scientific reputation secured?
In its exploration of these questions and many more, Making Marie Curie provides a composite picture not only of the making of Marie Curie, but the making of modern science itself.
Review
"Making Marie Curie is an impressive and well-written study that will be of broad interest beyond professional historians. Richly sourced and referenced, this book sheds new light on the personal and professional lives of the Curies, raising fascinating questions of the parenting and ownership of radium and providing a new angle on the Curiesand#8217; career that is sure to provoke debate."
Review
"Making Marie Cure is a gripping account of the episodes in Marie Curieand#8217;s life when her involvement with intellectual property, the press, celebrity culture, and the international management of information became especially consequential. Through these episodes, Hemmungs Wirtand#233;n traces the creation of the Curie and#8216;brandand#8217;and#8212;a term and a legal concept that the European Union has explicitly adopted. She reveals a fascinating process through which scientific persona and publicity intersect."
Review
2015 Editorsand#39; Spring Pick
Review
andquot;Marie Curie remains the most famous of female scientists. In the analysis of how the co-discoverer of radium became uniquely idolized, cultural scholar Eva Hemmungs Wirtandeacute;n uses the prisms of celebrity and intellectual propertyandmdash;Curie and her husband, Pierre, having famously refused to patent radium. Wirtandeacute;nand#39;s picture of a scientist carefully shaping her own image is less angelic than the traditional view of Curie, but might have much to teach her modern successors.andquot;
Review
andquot;In Making Marie Curie, Eva Hemmungs Wirtandeacute;n shows how biographers and polularizers, including Curie herself, fashioned the woman born Marya Sklodowska in 1867 into an enduring scientific persona. . . . If the legend of Marie Curie represents the aspirations of modern science, Making Marie Curie shows how a diverse range of people, from biographers to philanthropists to Curie herself, created these aspirations in the first place.andquot;
Review
andquot;In light of current constraints on research funding, and the debate over who should pay for scientific and other content, Wirtandeacute;nandrsquo;s excellent account of the complexity of the 1930s intellectual property debate is timely. . . . Using Curie as the vehicle for discussion on all the themes in this thought-provoking book is a strategy that enables Wirtandeacute;n to draw a far more complex portrait than that of the legendary wife patiently stirring radioactive pitchblende, content to remain in her husbandandrsquo;s shadow.andquot;
Review
2015 Editorsand#39; Spring Pick
andquot;Hemmungs Wirtandeacute;n explores how the most recognized female scientist managed her and#39;brand.and#39; In shaping her public persona, Marie Curie (1867andndash;1934) had to balance not only her roles as researcher and wife and mother but also issues of nationalism and an agenda that straddled the pure and applied sciences.andquot;
Review
andquot;A compellingly argued book thatand#39;s also a pleasure to read.andquot;
Synopsis
Isaac Newton has become an intellectual avatar for our modern age, the man who, as even children know, was inspired to codify nature's laws by watching an apple fall from a tree. Yet Newton devoted much of his energy to deciphering the mysteries of alchemy, theology, and ancient chronology. How did a man who was at first obscure to all but a few esoteric natural philosophers and Cambridge scholars, was preoccupied with investigations of millennial prophecies, and spent decades as Master of the London Mint become famous as the world's first great scientist? Patricia Fara demonstrates that Newton's reputation, surprisingly limited in his day, was carefully cultivated by devoted followers so that Newton's prestige became inseparable from the explosive growth of science itself.
Newton: The Making of Genius is not a conventional biography of the man but a cultural history of the interrelated origins of modern science, the concept of genius, and the phenomenon of fame. Beginning with the eighteenth century, when the word scientist had not even been coined, Fara reveals how the rise of Isaac Newton's status was inextricably linked to the development of science. His very surname has acquired brand-name-like associations with science, genius, and Britishness -- Apple Computers used it for an ill-fated companion to the Mac, and Margaret Thatcher has his image in her coat of arms.
Fara argues that Newton's escalating fame was intertwined with larger cultural changes: promoting him posthumously as a scientific genius was strategically useful for ambitious men who wanted to advertise the power of science. Because his reputation has been repeatedly reinterpreted, Newton has become an iconic figure who exists in several forms. His image has been so malleable, in fact, that we do not even reliably know what he looked like.
Newton's apotheosis was made possible by the consumer revolution that swept through the Atlantic world in the eighteenth century. His image adorned the walls, china, and ornamental coinage of socially aspiring British consumers seeking to identify themselves with this very smart man. Traditional impulses to saint worship were transformed into altogether new phenomena: commercialized fame and scientific genius, a secularized version of sanctity. Handsomely illustrated and engagingly written, this is an eye-opening history of the way Newton became a cultural icon whose ideas spread throughout the world and pervaded every aspect of life.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. 302-337) and index.
Synopsis
Marie Curie represents modern science. Her considerable lifetime achievementsand#151;including being the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person to win two Nobel Prizes, the only woman to win in two fields, and the only person to win in multiple sciencesand#151;are studied by schoolchildren across the globe. Making Marie Curie explores what went into making this icon of science. It is not a traditional biography, or one that seeks to uncover the and#147;realand#8221; Marie Curie. Instead, Eva Hemmungs Wirtand#233;n draws readers through major events in Marie Curieand#8217;s life, tracing a career spanning two centuries and one World War, in order to paint a composite picture of her rising celebrity. In doing so, Hemmungs Wirtand#233;n provides an innovative and historically grounded account of how modern science emerges in tandem with celebrity culture, through the power of print and under the influence of intellectual property.
About the Author
Eva Hemmungs Wirtén is professor of mediated culture at Linköping University, Sweden. She is the author of Terms of Use: Negotiating the Jungle of the Intellectual Commons and No Trespassing: Authorship, Intellectual Property Rights, and the Boundaries of Globalization.
Table of Contents
Introduction
and#160;
1and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Me, Myself, I: In the Interest of Disinterestedness
and#160;
2and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Scandal, Slander, and Science: Surviving 1911
and#160;
3and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; The Gift(s) That Kept on Giving: Circulating Radium and Curie
and#160;
4and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160;and#160; Intellectuals of the World, Unite! Curie and the League of Nations
and#160;
Epilogue
and#160;
Acknowledgments
and#160;
Notes
and#160;
Bibliographic Essay
and#160;
Index