People all over the world in search of truth about the creation of the Universe and his own creation generally pursue two paths. One is religion and another science. These are the two paths readily available to any seeker of truth. Which is why we have great spiritual masters and great scientists. The purpose of their spiritual and scientific pursuit is to make human life peaceful and comfortable.

It is, therefore, natural books about these spiritual and scientific subjects are written so also about those who have seen the spiritual light, the enlightened masters, and the scientists who have made discoveries and inventions for expanding our knowledge on these subjects.

One such book in the genre of science is about Marie Curie, the first woman Nobel Prize winner and a pioneering scientist of a rare kind. The book on Marie Curie is written by a Kannadiga, Sydney Srinivas, and published by Prism  Books Pvt. Ltd., Bengaluru, titled simply “Marie Curie – The First Woman Nobel Laureate and a Pioneering Scientist.”

It is most curious that Marie Curie belongs to a most remarkable family where there are five Nobel Laureates sharing four prizes — one Nobel Prize was jointly shared by Marie Curie and her husband Pierre Curie (for Physics in 1903). In 1911, she won the Nobel for Chemistry. Other two were won by her daughter Irène (jointly with her husband Joliot) and her second son-in-law Henry Richardson Labouisse on behalf of UNICEF, being its Executive Director. Amazing. A case of monopoly on gathering Nobel Prizes!

Marie Curie was the discoverer of the element Radium. It is indeed shocking to read in the book the extent and the severity of gender discrimination in Europe even as late as the early 20th Century. The Universities in her country, Poland, did not admit girls. So she moved to Sorbonne in Paris. But her problem for being born a woman did not end here, nor being a foreigner, despite her brilliant academic achievement.

When her teachers recommended names for the award of a Nobel Prize for their discovery, they deliberately omitted her name as she was a woman and a foreigner. Worse, the University gave her and her husband an abandoned morgue as laboratory to conduct their experiment that led to their winning the Nobel Prize.

Now, how could she get the Nobel Prize despite the narrow mindedness of the French elite of the time in the academics and its attempt to underrate, downplay women’s contribution to science and scientific discovery?

The drama unfolded when a noble soul in the Nobel Science Committee, who was the editor of the well-known science journal, acted as a whistle blower and wrote to Marie Curie’s husband Pierre, whose name was already announced for the Prize, to alert him of the omission of Marie’s name from the nomination. Pierre got the message and told the Nobel Science Committee that he would not accept the Prize if Marie’s name was left out. The Nobel Committee relented.

The book is full of minute details about Marie Curie’s life and the death of her husband in an accident when a wagon ran over him. Very moving, touching and disturbing to the reader. It was a case of If, But and Fate. She was in despair beyond words but as a scientist she was back to work.

It is interesting to know from the book that a very young Albert Einstein, who gave the world the Theory of Relativity and a Nobel Laureate,  got his job at the University of Zurich, mainly because of a recommendation given by Marie.

Marie Curie died in 1934 at age 66 by the effects of accumulated radiation. One newspaper headlined the news: MME. CURIE IS DEAD; MARTYR TO SCIENCE.

The book is well-produced on art paper with many pictures. The author Sydney Srinivas has written other biographies of great scientists also like Charles Darwin, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and the famous Indian Mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. Being a scientist himself, a Ph.D and ME from the IISc., Bengaluru and now retired from the University of Sydney, Australia, writing on scientists comes naturally for him.

The result is seen in the way this highly researched book is written. Those who want to pursue science as a subject of their study and research, must read books such as this one.

Karkenahalli Srinivas (Sydney Srinivas) has indeed paid a great tribute to a great scientist and humanist Marie Curie by writing this book which is published in Kannada also. A tribute from one scientist to another.

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