CarveHerName

#OnThisDay, 20 Apr 1902, Maria Skłodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie refine radium chlorine. The discovery leads to Marie being the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1903.

The Academy originally planned to award only Pierre and Henri Becquerel. Pierre insisted that Marie should also be included.

#WomenInHistory #OTD #History #WomenInSTEM #NobelWomen #Histodons

Apr 20, 2025 at 8:00amWeb
Show threadTor LillqvistApr 20, 2025
@CarveHerName This toot is slightly misleading. The Nobel Prize organisation's web page explains it: It was when French academics were planning to *suggest* to the Swedish Academy of Sciences (which awards the prize) that the prize goes to Pierre Curie and Henri Becquerel that Pierre then insisted that they include also Marie in their suggestion. Obviously he did not know in advance who the prize was going to actually be awarded to.
Show threadElena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂Apr 20, 2025

@CarveHerName thank you for sharing her incredible accomplishments. I LOVE LOVE LOVE your posts and I have a tiny request / just raising a question about her.

So her real full name is Maria Skłodowska-Curie - I feel that when she raised to fame while working in France, her Polish identity was completely erased.

The French love turning names into French (Léonard de Vinci, Boccace, Michel-Ange etc.) so she's always been referred to Marie Curie. When I tell my 4-year-old about this scientist's phenomenal accomplishments, I always refer to her as "Maria Skłodowska-Curie" - thus honoring her birth first name and last name, too. Thoughts?

Show threadCarveHerNameApr 20, 2025
@elena Hiya. Thank you for flagging. We did pick this up back in December and say we'd do it in future. We'd not factored in the fact we use a scheduler to save time and hadn't put a big reminder up to check her name. We'll
a) amend the original
b) go through and set reminders to amend the posts when we reuse them.
Show threadCarveHerNameApr 20, 2025

@elena

reminders very firmly set.

Show threadElena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂Apr 20, 2025

@CarveHerName Aw thank you so much ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
I always wince when I hear her being called "Marie Curie" because her Polish identity was so dear to her - I mean, she even called one element she discovered "Polonium". Her tombstone at the Pantheon respects her maiden name, too.

I really really appreciate you taking action about this. And keep up the inspiring posts!

Show threadTor LillqvistApr 20, 2025
@elena @CarveHerName On her second Nobel Prize, they use her real name. (Photo taken in the museum in Warszawa. https://www.mmsc.waw.pl/en/ )
MMSC – Witaj w domu!

Show threadElena Rossini on GoToSocial ⁂Apr 20, 2025

@tml @CarveHerName Thank you for sharing this!
On her tombstone at the Pantheon they also used her maiden name. It just made me sad to learn that in order to assimilate, she changed her first name from Maria to Marie when she got married to Pierre Curie. Like, how much of an effort was it for French people to call her "Maria" back then?

I live in Paris and if people began calling me Helene for convenience's sake, I would just about lose it 🫠

Show threadBytebro 🇬🇧 🇺🇦 🇬🇱Apr 20, 2025
@CarveHerName
...and her notebooks are still too radioactive to be safely handled.
Show threadNonya BidnissApr 20, 2025
@CarveHerName radium chloride