2011 Recap, The Year of Marie Curie

Although 2011 is behind us now, it's never late to reminisce the significance of the past, and especially of the first woman who won the Nobel Prize and who went on to win another, in chemistry and physics. Look, for the sentimental ones out there, we aren't really 

Lauren Redniss, an artist, has taken Marie Curie's story much further. Blending part history, art, love narrative, and a generous dose of creativity in a collage format, the result is a pure inspirational cocktail of a coffee table book any curious mind will appreciate. For the more scientifically inclined, Redniss thoughtfully chose the following printing technique and thus expressed the well-coined phrase "the medium is the message" only too well.

"To stay true to Curie’s spirit and legacy, Redniss rendered her poetic artwork in an early-20th-century image printing process called cyanotype, critical to the discovery of both X-rays and radioactivity itself — a cameraless photographic technique in which paper is coated with light-sensitive chemicals. Once exposed to the sun’s UV rays, this chemically-treated paper turns a deep blue color."

Suitable for: Budding scientists, working scientists who have an appreciation for art, any curious mind with an affinity for a biography celebrating this incredible woman, or anyone who want to see that paper glow under the sun! 

Radioactive: Marie & Pierre Curie: A Tale of Love and Fallout, Lauren Redniss

Fisher also gives us some lesson plan ideas. (via Fisher Science Ed)

"Classroom Discussion

1. Discuss ways in which the discovery of radiation had an impact on the world, both positive 

and negative

2. Marie Curie achieved a great number of things during her lifetime. Research and list 10 of 

her accomplishments"

(via BrainPickings)