Marie Curie: A Life (Radcliffe Biography Series)

Customer Reviews:

no title.......2005-11-28

I had mixed emotions on this book and so did many of the numerous reviews I read. While trying to celebrate Marie Curie in light of our feminist times - a motivating factor in the book's writing, I'm sure - the author spends far too little time on the actual physics of Curie's accomplishments and instead dwells on her love affair with a married collegue, on household matters, trivial matters of her everyday life that may make her seem more approachable to the book's readers, but do nothing to clarify her position in historical physics or her winning, jointly, the Nobel Prize, admittedly then in its infancy. I felt Curie to be an extremely passionate woman, both in her work and in her bed. But I wanted much more detail of the physics than was given.

Quinn: Marie Curie.......2005-08-06

This book has excellent historical information about Poland and Marie Curie's family before she was born and after. It gives a very good description of her life growing up and her family, as well as personal experiences gleaned from unpublished letters. It brings information hitherto unpublished about her personal life, and it presents her career in a fascinating way. I cannot rate the book highly enough.

For Mr. Howarth.......2005-03-31

Marie Curie A Life by Susan Quinn takes you on a journey as you discover the life of Marie Curie. From her difficult days under the Russian repression in Poland, to the sexism she faced in Paris, her two Nobel Peace Prizes, and the scandal that almost lost her everything. I especially liked this biography because it was to the point and it did not over glorify Marie's life. The fact of the matter is that Marie's life was full of hardships and this book depicts all of them. I think the author wanted to write this story because she wanted to depict the life of Marie Curie who was an inspiration to several women, and who contributed a great deal to the scientific community. I believe that the author however, wanted to portray her in a real light, so while other biographies might be a little bit more glamorous this one is more realistic. This is an extremely fascinating biography and you should read it because it shows how Marie's life was filled with obstacles, and how she overcame them all.

A wonderful history of Poland as well as a biography.......2003-03-04

Susan Quinn does a wonderful job of describing the hurdles that Curie's family had to overcome during the occupation of Poland by Russia, Austria, and Prussia. The interesting fact is that all of her siblings were bright and well educated despite the denial of public education. Reading this book has been a delightful experience.

Marie Curie.......2003-02-05

This book did an very good job in explaining the science of Marie Curie to the average reader, However it's not a book I would read for fun. This book was long and tedious with extensive descriptions of things that often seemed almost completely unrelated to her life and work. If you're looking for a book that will make you like who Marie Curie was this is not it. It depicts her as cold, aloof and almost neglectful of her children. It also seems to end abrubtly. There isn't a conclusion of any sort to a book that goes on for 433 pages.If you need to know about her life and work this book certainly does a more than adequate job in covering it, but it's a long slow read that you have to force yourself through in parts of it.

Radiation And Modern Life: Fulfilling Marie Curie's Dream

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Excellent Overview of Applications of Nuclear Technology
Pro Radiaton, not Con - One thing at a time!
Radiation and Modern Life

Radiation And Modern Life: Fulfilling Marie Curie's Dream
Alan E. Waltar , and Helene Langevin-Joliot
Manufacturer: Prometheus Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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A Case for Nuclear-Generated Electricity: (Or Why I Think Nuclear Power Is Cool and Why It Is Important That You Think So Too)

ASIN: 1591022509

Book Description

"Excellent book! As his text moves from the discoveries of Madame Curie to the immense benefits that radiation processes provide to mankind, Alan Walter shows how her words, 'Nothing in life is to be feared, it is to be understood,' guided her work and those of later researchers. . . . From her pioneering work to a broad-based range of industries contributing more than $400 billion annually to the US economy and over 4 million jobs, Dr. Walter weaves a fascinating narrative of human exploration and technology utilization." US SENATOR PETE DOMENICI, Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee

"The importance of this book is immeasurable. Dr. Walter's engaging discourse broadens our understanding of the impact and value of radiation technology in every realm of our lives. His insights reveal the humanity of the history and application of Marie Curie's science and may ultimately provide the essential knowledge we need to deliver us from our fears." THE HONORABLE J. BENNETT JOHNSTON, Former US Senator, 1972-1997

"Dr. Walter takes us on an incredible journey through a vast universe of beneficial uses of radiation that contribute to abundance in our supply of energy, water, and food; protect our health, our homeland, and the environment; and make possible our scientific exploration of the human genetic map and the far reaches of space. His narrative style makes this vitally important story accessible and interesting for us all." JOE F. COLVIN, President and Chief Executive Officer, Nuclear Energy Institute, Washington, DC

"Alan Walter has written an invaluable and highly readable book. Readers will be stunned by the indispensable role radiation has come to play in our contemporary lives, from awe-inspiring medical and agricultural uses to everyday consumer and safety applications. It's hard to imagine how anyone could be nuclear-phobic after this." SUSAN EISENHOWER, Chairman of the Eisenhower Institute, Washington, DC.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Overview of Applications of Nuclear Technology.......2006-08-17

I have worked as a physicist in the nuclear field for just over 30 years. Since my work has been of a very narrow specialized nature, I never kept myself fully up-to-date on the incredible diversity of uses for nuclear technology. Consequently, reading this book was indeed an eye-opener for me. The author, a nuclear engineer, discusses a variety of uses of nuclear technology in a wide range of areas, including agriculture, medicine, power generation, industry, transportation, space exploration, public safety, arts and sciences, environmental protection and modern economy. Writing in a very chatty style, the author is quite detailed in most of his descriptions, but he interspersed them with several personal anecdotes, thus adding to one's reading enjoyment. Although an early chapter contains basic information on radiation, i.e., its nature, sources, means of measurement and health risks, a reader who is completely unfamiliar with the subject matter may find a few passages in the book a bit harder to follow. However, these passages are few such that this most informative and well-written book can be enjoyed by a very wide audience. I highly recommend it!

Pro Radiaton, not Con - One thing at a time!.......2005-02-25

The tenor of the book is sincerely enthusiastic. It reminded me of my youth, when from a yearbook of science and technology I learnt that with nuclear power plants, we could expect electricity for practically no fuel. As an engineering student I learnt, as if that was a law of the solar system, that electricity consumption increases immutably, by 8% per year. Also familiar from my youth, over half a century ago, is the idea of desalination plants to irrigate deserts in proximity of oceans. Waltar reports that desalination requires a lot of energy, but that nuclear power can now provide that, and even produce nuclear-based electricity and drinking water simultaneously in one integrated plant. Other ideas that could not fail to impress me are the elimination of most of the nuclear waste disposal problem by using breeder reactors which recycle waste into new fuels, and the use of antimatter power in space flight, which would be ten billion times more efficient than chemical power like from a Saturn V booster rocket. Fission power as now used in some places on Earth is only ten million times more efficient.
What the cost of all that efficiency might be, Waltar does not aim to explain. Opposition to radiation technologies is mentioned rarely and mostly condescendingly. To convince consumers that radiation in our lives cannot be rolled back, he lumps informational applications of radiation and nuclear power together into the radiation technologies industry, which is bigger than General Motors (in terms of "economic impact", by plain sales it would not be). Jobs created by radiation technologies are shown off, but jobs lost with the industries or occupations displaced are not mentioned. And he points out that radiation is all over the universe. This is a fact - but not a relevant one: We humans are here, with other living beings, only because we have an atmosphere that protects us from the harshness of the rest of the universe. Waltar covers many technical and historical details by referring to other publications, keeping the book reasonably easy to read for ordinary literate people, though rich in scope. Studies cited about the harmlessness and even purported health benefits of low level radiation were typically done in remote countries (or in military secrecy) under difficult record-keeping circumstances, and are viewed sceptically by careful life scientists, in contrast to physicists and engineers like Waltar. In potential public impact, the book is a major challenge.

[Note: Same text as submitted to amazon.co.uk; can you share?]

Radiation and Modern Life.......2005-02-21

This was an excellent book to read for any lay person or student on the many uses of ionizing radiation in modern life. It was amazing to learn of the many applications and benefits we have received as a result of radiation, and Prof. Waltar did an excellent job providing this information in a very readable narrative explaining the benefits as well as short comings of radiation. This book covers the benefits of nuclear medicine, nuclear power, agriculture, transportation, water, waste lean up, the arts, scientific exploration of space and more. Great Job! Fun to read!

Marie Curie: A Scientific Pioneer (Great Life Stories)

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Marie Curie: A Scientific Pioneer (Great Life Stories)
Allison Lassieur
Manufacturer: Franklin Watts
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Library Binding

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ASIN: 0531122700

Marie Curie: A Brilliant Life (Snapshots: Images of People and Places in History)

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Excellent chldren's introduction

Marie Curie: A Brilliant Life (Snapshots: Images of People and Places in History)
Elizabeth MacLeod
Manufacturer: Kids Can Press, Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1553375718

Book Description

As a poor student in Paris, Marie Curie piled clothes -- and furniture -- on top of herself to keep warm at night. But Marie went on to become the first woman to win a Nobel Prize -- and also the first person to win this award twice. Marie Curie's discoveries in radiation changed the world. She became one of the most important women in science and her research is still important to scientists and doctors today. Radiation is used as a treatment for cancer and to produce electricity, kill organisms that spoil food and detect smoke in homes.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent chldren's introduction.......2007-06-27

I pulled this book from the university library shelves as I was searching for a good example of a children's biography. For the photobiography genre, it is the best I've seen. The layout and design are excellent. It is informational, engaging and inviting. The layout breaks down a potentially boring subject and bridges the gap between dated photographs and modern sensibilites. This book is a good choice both for casual reader and student seeking information for a report.

Biological Clocks: Mechanisms and Applications

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Biological Clocks: Mechanisms and Applications
France) International Congress on Chronobiology (1997 Paris , and Yvan Touitou
Manufacturer: Elsevier Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

Hardbound. This volume comprises the lectures and a selection of communications presented at the International Congress on Chronobiology, held in Paris, in September, 1997.

Book Description

Geo-information technology offers an opportunity to support disaster management: industrial accidents, road collisions, complex emergencies, earthquakes, fires, floods and similar catastrophes (for example the recent huge disaster with the Tsunami in South-East Asia on 26 December 2004). Access to needed information, facilitation of the interoperability of emergency services, and provision of high-quality care to the public are a number of the key requirements.

Such requirements pose significant challenges for data management, discovery, translation, integration, visualization and communication based on the semantics of the heterogeneous (geo-) information sources with differences in many aspects: scale/resolution, dimension (2D or 3D), classification and attribute schemes, temporal aspects (up-to-date-ness, history, predictions of the future), spatial reference system used, etc.

The book provides a broad overview of the (geo-information) technology, software, systems needed, used and to be developed for disaster management. The book provokes a wide discussion on systems and requirements for use of geo-information under time and stress constraints and unfamiliar situations, environments and circumstances.

Book Description

This book is a valuable introduction to astrophysical plasmas and fluids for graduate students of astronomy preparing either for a research career in the field or just aspiring to achieve a decent degree of familiarity with 99% of the cosmos. The contents provide a true representation of the phenomenal diversity of dominant roles that plasmas and fluids play in the near and far reaches of the universe. The breadth of coverage of basic physical processes is a particularly attractive feature of this textbook. By first using the Liouville equation to derive the kinetic, the two-fluid and single-fluid, descriptions of a plasma and a fluid, and then demonstrating the use of these descriptions for specific situations in the rest of the book, the author has probably chosen the most efficient way of handling this large technical subject. The two major astrophysical issues, fluid or plasma configurations and their radiative signatures, figure prominently throughout the book. The problems are designed to give the reader a feel for the quantitative properties of celestial objects.

Book Description

Dr. Swarthmore, bearded and grave, was a clergyman posted to rural Indiana. Late in the year 1900 he published a pamphlet in which he described the Second Coming and the end of the world. Blount, an uncanny youth with a divine gift for salesmanship, proposes a scheme for promoting the pamphlet, selling it by the thousands, and making a lot of money. A new century is at hand; fear of the future, Blount reasons, will render Indiana susceptible to the exalted and prophetic flavour of the pamphlet. Dr. Swarthmore, dazzled in spite of himself, falls in with this questionable marketing plan. At the critical moment, however, public opinion sways to science rather than religion; Dr. Swarthmore is undone.

This book does not have a serious bone in its body. Its plot is absurd. Its characters are cartoons. Among many other things, it is a satire on capitalist enterprise in general and the publishing industry in particular.

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Catalogue of mammals, birds, reptiles, etc. presented to Swarthmore College by Dr. E. Michener & Edw. Hoopes
Ezra Michener
Manufacturer: Michener & Hoopes
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

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ASIN: B00085MV7W

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