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Characters in Rutherford's life

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Marie Curie (1867-1934)

       It would not be useful to repeat the biography of Marie Curie here: there are already many of them. I would just recommend the one written by Susan Quinn and the one by Robert Reid, the most complete among the dozen I use for my novel. If you prefer French, then read Une femme honorable by Françoise Giroud or, even more touching, Madame Curie, a work by Ève Curie, the baby that appears on Marie's lap in the group photo presented here (the other child is her older sister, Irène).

I use many elements from Marie Curie's life in my work, because writing a biography of Rutherford without mentioning his French colleague would leave a lot of gray areas.

From the start of their work on radioactive bodies, the two researchers find their bearings, read and quote each other, but always from a distance.

On June 25, 1903, they met for the first time.

Marie is defending her thesis on that day. Ernest is on vacation in Europe. Back from Geneva, he stops in Paris. He wants to visit Marie in her laboratory; she is absent, occupied precisely by her defense. He returns to his hotel, disappointed.

But in the afternoon, a message arrives: his friend Langevin , whom he met in Cambridge, invites him to a dinner in honor of the new doctor of science Marie Skłodowska-Curie.

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Meetings between Marie Curie and Ernest Rutherford:

1903: Paris (dinner at Langevin's )

1910: Brussels ( radiology congress )

1911: Brussels ( Solvay congress )

1912: Paris ( Radium Commission )

1913: Birmingham ( BAAS )

1913: Brussels ( Solvay congress )

1921: Brussels ( Solvay congress )

1924: Brussels ( Solvay congress )

1933: Brussels ( Solvay congress )

Ernest and May Rutherford will be part of the fifteen or so guests gathered in rue Gazan, at the home of Jeanne and Paul Langevin, to celebrate this success. Also participating in this meal are some other figures of science of the time, who appear in the "trombinoscope" below (I tried to find photos in which they are all the age they were in 1903) .

From that day on, the Polish-born physicist and her New Zealand counterpart, both expatriates, atypical, determined, quick-witted, hardworking, will feel close to each other. Admiration, respect, support in the face of adversity: it has been a true friendship and I want to bring it to life in the pages of my Rutherford biography.

Marie Curie and Ernest Rutherford will meet in Brussels in 1910 then in 1911, in Paris in 1912 and in Birmingham in 1913.

(Click on the name of each city to know the details of this reunion) then in 1921, 1924 and 1933, on the occasion of various Solvay Congresses.

They will maintain an irregular, but lasting, correspondence.

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Cover page of the thesis presented by Marie Skłodowska-Curie on June 25, 1903.

Click on the image to access the Gallica site which offers the entire scanned document.

Some of the guests who participated in the meal given in honor of Marie at Jeanne and Paul Langevin's, at 23 rue Gazan, in front of the Parc Montsouris (Paris XIV)

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(1921) in Brussels, during the 3rd Solvay physics congress, seated in the first row, two seats away from Ernest Rutherford (the man placed between them is the American Robert Millikan).

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