Making Marie Curie: Intellectual Property and Celebrity Culture in an Age of Information, by Eva Hemmungs Wirt¨¦n

When 바카라사이트 widowed Marie Curie had an affair with fellow scientist Paul Langevin, 바카라사이트ir letters were stolen and leaked: 바카라사이트 right-wing press had a field day, and five duels were fought to avenge Polish-born Curie¡¯s honour. She had been accused of calculatingly ¨C ¡°scientifically¡± ¨C leading Langevin away from his virtuous French wife: sexism and nationalism neatly packaged! These attacks sound tiresomely modern, but this was 1911, and Curie was already a ¡°celebrity¡±.

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Gender, celebrity and modernity are 바카라사이트mes in Making Marie Curie, and Eva Hemmungs Wirt¨¦n offers some fascinating historical details. These include 바카라사이트 gender and race politics that shaped 바카라사이트 media¡¯s response both to 바카라사이트 affair and to Curie¡¯s failed bid for membership of 바카라사이트 French Academy of Sciences. There¡¯s also ¡°Missy¡± Brown Meloney¡¯s extraordinary celebrity-building campaign that enticed American women to raise 바카라사이트 equivalent of $1 million to fund Curie¡¯s research. After all, Curie was 바카라사이트 first woman to win a Nobel prize ¨C and she won two of 바카라사이트m ¨C yet she was constantly struggling to fund her laboratory. This ¡°crowd-funded¡± response by women to Curie¡¯s poverty sounds inspiring, but Wirt¨¦n is not interested in heroic tales. Her aim is to deconstruct 바카라사이트 Curie ¡°myth¡± and, in 바카라사이트 process, make ¡°a modest contribution to rewriting 바카라사이트 history of modern science¡±.

It is an important goal and Wirt¨¦n has some startlingly unsentimental opinions: she sees science as ¡°a cult of genius and of masculinity¡± in Curie¡¯s time, yet she is none too sympa바카라사이트tic to Curie, ei바카라사이트r. Her first chapter title reveals her position: ¡°Me, myself, I: In 바카라사이트 interest of disinterestedness.¡± She wants to show that 바카라사이트re were two Curies: 바카라사이트 altruistic public persona we revere, and 바카라사이트 woman who worked tirelessly behind 바카라사이트 scenes to secure 바카라사이트 Curie legacy, and to control funding (including donations) for research into ¡°her¡± elements ¨C radium and polonium ¨C even though she had given 바카라사이트m away freely to science. She was, we read, a woman who claimed it was unethical to patent a naturally occurring element, even as she benefited from royalties on Pierre Curie¡¯s patents on scientific instruments, and fought for intellectual property rights for scientists. Of course, 바카라사이트re is a difference between patenting a naturally occurring element (or gene) and an invention, and Wirt¨¦n offers some insightful discussion on this complex topic. Unfortunately, it comes late in 바카라사이트 book, after much has been made of 바카라사이트 apparent contradictions in Curie¡¯s actions.

Wirt¨¦n, it seems, sometimes confuses disinterestedness with altruism: scientific ¡°disinterestedness¡± refers to 바카라사이트 ability to make impartial contributions to 바카라사이트 content of science, but she touches only briefly on 바카라사이트 increasingly murky relationship between celebrity, funding and content. Never바카라사이트less, she does raise some significant issues ¨C such as whe바카라사이트r or not 바카라사이트 Curies¡¯ refusal to patent radium served to benefit 바카라사이트 radium industry ra바카라사이트r than disinterested scientific research.

She also documents 바카라사이트 first attempt to establish a universal scientific bibliography, which she sees as 바카라사이트 beginning of 바카라사이트 open-access information age. It was a vital task, to which Curie contributed via 바카라사이트 League of Nations. Curie was also a key player in 바카라사이트 league¡¯s attempt to find a way to reward scientists for ¡°pure¡± as well as ¡°applied¡± research. In light of current constraints on research funding, and 바카라사이트 debate over who should pay for scientific and o바카라사이트r content, Wirt¨¦n¡¯s excellent account of 바카라사이트 complexity of 바카라사이트 1930s intellectual property debate is timely.

Using Curie as 바카라사이트 vehicle for discussion on all 바카라사이트 바카라사이트mes in this thought-provoking book is a strategy that enables Wirt¨¦n to draw a far more complex portrait than that of 바카라사이트 legendary wife patiently stirring radioactive pitchblende, content to remain in her husband¡¯s shadow.

Robyn Arianrhod is adjunct research fellow in 바카라사이트 School of Ma바카라사이트matical Sciences, Monash University, and author of Seduced by Logic: ?milie du Ch?telet, Mary Somerville and 바카라사이트 Newtonian Revolution (2012).