Dr Lindsey Fitzharris

Marie Curie's notebooks are radioactive and must be stored in a lead-lined box in the Bibliothèque Nationale. Curie’s corpse is also radioactive. Her coffin is lined in an inch of lead. Both will remain radioactive for 1,500+ years.

#histodons #histodon #histsci #histmed #science #scientist #radioactive

May 23, 2023 at 9:04amWeb
Show threadBehind the PagesMay 23, 2023
@DrLindseyFitzharris  
Show threadBeeCycling has movedMay 23, 2023

@DrLindseyFitzharris Apparently even Marie's cookbooks are radioactive! 😱 Presumably all their papers, research or otherwise, from the time are. Scary.

I wonder if Pierre's body is also radioactive. I know he died in an accident in 1906, but he'd already had extensive exposure to radioactivity by then.

Show threadJoshua McNeillMay 23, 2023
@beecycling @DrLindseyFitzharris Pierre is apparently also radioactive, but all this seems to come with the caveat that none are radioactive at dangerous levels: https://www.acsh.org/news/2022/01/03/marie-curie%E2%80%99s-notebooks-16033
Marie Curie’s Notebooks

Marie Curie died of aplastic anemia, a disease brought on, in her case, by exposure to a large amount of radiation from both her laboratory work and from her work running field x-ray machines during the First World War. There was no surprise there, given the little known about radiation and its effects on our bodies when she did her early work. But it turns out that it’s not only Marie and Pierre Curie who were contaminated - even her notebooks are stored in a lead box.

American Council on Science and Health
Show threadhammancheezMay 23, 2023
@DrLindseyFitzharris Marie is radioactive to finally get men to stay the fuck away and stop mansplaining nuclear physics to her
Show threadNeptuneMay 23, 2023
@DrLindseyFitzharris imagine how impatient the world must be to wait 1,500 years to study her work.
Show threadStéphane BortzmeyerMay 23, 2023
@DrLindseyFitzharris You already know that but, for the record, radioactivity does not work that way. Each year, they will be less radioactive, but they will remain active almost forever.
Show threadCthululemonMay 23, 2023
@DrLindseyFitzharris Future archeologists: what taboos did this woman break to be buried so differently from her comortants?
Show threadMark - Ottawa on Tundra 🇨🇦  May 23, 2023
@DrLindseyFitzharris And in Florida they want to pave roads with radioactive waste?
Show threadOne World One PeopleMay 23, 2023
@DrLindseyFitzharris TWW: Water came to Earth, a gift of life in all its forms, a celebration of love. We honor that gift in the foods we grow, the animals we tend and the miracles of nature that we adore and that inspire all people to create. *It’s that last part that I like most. M. Curie worked during a time when miracles of nature were a very strong inspiration, the hight of modernism. It changed the world. Today we are there again as we discover forces we have to learn to control. OWOP
Show threadMadelineMay 23, 2023

@DrLindseyFitzharris

What strikes me is that there were only 19 students. We would be lucky to have only 30 in a class here in LA County.

Show threadRotfarmMay 24, 2023
@DrLindseyFitzharris and people still wana support nuclear....
Show threadPJT NorthMay 29, 2023

@DrLindseyFitzharris

I suspect she gave all…and gladly.

Show threadBilly SmithMay 29, 2023

@DrLindseyFitzharris

An ex-girlfriend told me that she was inspired to study science after seeing Marie Curie's labcoat in a museum.

She also said that after looking at the burn-marks in the pockets from the radium that Curie used to carry, she decided to study bio-sciences rather than physics. :D