Dava Sobel, author of The Elements of Marie Curie, in conversation with Alyssa Goodman
When:
Sunday, Oct 20, 2024 3:00p -
4:00p
Sunday, Oct 20, 2024 3:00p -
4:00p
Where:
St. James Church
1991 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02140
Admission:
$10-36
Hosted by:
Categories:
History, Lectures & Conferences
Event website:
https://www.portersquarebooks.com/event/ticketed-dava-sobel-author-elements-marie-curie-conversation-alyssa-goodman
Porter Square Books is thrilled to welcome Dava Sobel for the release of her latest book The Elements of Marie Curie! This event will take place on Sunday, October 20 at 3 pm at St. James Episcopal Church (1991 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02140).
This event is TICKETED and you can purchase your ticket here.
Each ticket includes entrance for 1 to the event, as well as one copy of The Elements of Marie Curie, which you'll be able to get signed at the event.
ABOUT THE ELEMENTS OF MARIE CURIE
The acclaimed Pulitzer Prize finalist and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Galileo's Daughter crafts a luminous chronicle of the life and work of the most famous woman in the history of science, and the untold story of the many young women trained in her laboratory who were launched into stellar scientific careers of their own
"Even now, nearly a century after her death, Marie Curie remains the only female scientist most people can name," writes Dava Sobel at the opening of her shining portrait of the sole Nobel laureate decorated in two separate fields of science--Physics in 1903 with her husband Pierre and Chemistry by herself in 1911. And yet, Sobel makes clear, as brilliant and creative as she was in the laboratory, Marie Curie was equally passionate outside it. Grieving Pierre's untimely death in 1906, she took his place as professor of physics at the Sorbonne; devotedly raised two brilliant daughters; drove a van she outfitted with x-ray equipment to the front lines of World War I; befriended Albert Einstein and other luminaries of twentieth-century physics; won support from two U.S. presidents; and inspired generations of young women the world over to pursue science as a way of life.
As Sobel did so memorably in her portrait of Galileo through the prism of his daughter, she approaches Marie Curie from a unique angle, narrating her remarkable life of discovery and fame alongside the women who became her legacy--from France's Marguerite Perey, who discovered the element francium, and Norway's Ellen Gleditsch, to Mme. Curie's elder daughter, Irène, winner of the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. For decades the only woman in the room at international scientific gatherings that probed new theories about the interior of the atom, Marie Curie traveled far and wide, despite constant illness, to share the secrets of radioactivity, a term she coined. Her two triumphant tours of the United States won her admirers for her modesty even as she was mobbed at every stop; her daughters, in Ève's later recollection, "discovered all at once what the retiring woman with whom they had always lived meant to the world."
With the consummate skill that made bestsellers of Longitude and Galileo's Daughter, and the appreciation for women in science at the heart of her most recent The Glass Universe, Dava Sobel has crafted a radiant biography and a masterpiece of storytelling, illuminating the life and enduring influence of one of the most consequential figures of our time.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Dava Sobel is the author of the international bestseller Longitude, the bestselling Pulitzer Prize finalist Galileo’s Daughter, The Planets, A More Perfect Heaven, And the Sun Stood Still, and The Glass Universe, and co-author of The Illustrated Longitude. She is the recipient of the Individual Public Service Award from the National Science Board, the Bradford Washburn Award, the Kumpke-Roberts Award from the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, among other honors. A former New York Times science reporter, and currently editor of the “Meter” poetry column in Scientific American, she lives on Long Island.
Alyssa Goodman is a professor of astronomy at Harvard University, known for her innovative research and contributions to understanding the structure of the Milky Way. She is a leader in using 3D visualization techniques to make complex scientific data more accessible and meaningful, helping to reveal new insights about the universe.
Goodman is also the driving force behind "Seamless Astronomy," a project aimed at improving collaboration and openness in scientific research. Beyond her research, she is active in public outreach, often discussing the history of astronomy and figures like Henrietta Leavitt, whose work helped shape our understanding of the cosmos. Her efforts have advanced both scientific discovery and the communication of complex ideas to broader audiences.
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