Truth
Lab Notebooks
and Doctoral Thesis
Marie Curie's lab notebooks and her doctoral thesis are a testament to her incredible commitment to science. She was relentless in her pursuit of scientific discovery, sacrificing many daily comforts to accomplish her goals.
Simcox (2015)
Scientists carefully handling Marie Curie's lab notebooks. They wear gloves to protect themselves from the radioactivity they still contain. At the time she was writing in these notebooks, Marie Curie did not know how harmful the material she was working with was. She used to carry vials of radium in her dress pockets and eventually died of a form of radiation poisoning.
Marie Curie's lab notebooks are valuable primary sources that are still dangerously radioactive and will be for another 1500 years. These small notebooks have provided useful information to scientists and doctors. Her doctoral thesis provides information about her discoveries while she was studying at the Sorbonne University in Paris, France.
Wellcome Collection (1903)
Marie Curie's Doctoral Thesis for her degree in physics.
"In 1903, Curie became the first woman in France to earn a PhD in physics. Professors who reviewed her doctoral thesis, which was about radiation, declared that it was the greatest single contribution to science ever written." Smithsonian Magazine (2011)