Resumo de To Catch A Star On Your Fingertips

When Marie Sklodowska came to Paris from her Warsaw, Poland home, she planned to study physics, chemistry, and mathematics at the Sorbonne. With little food to eat, she survived mostly on bread and studied like a willing pupil.

Marie had an incredible memory and had finished secondary school at the young age of sixteen. She was given a gold medal for her good work. Her father's bad investments forced her to work as a teacher and also as a governess. She worked at the latter to pay for her sister's schooling. She and her sister made an agreement that when Bronia, Marie's sister, finished her schooling, she would help Marie to complete hers. Bronia kept her word.

It did not take Marie long to realize that other students were ahead of her in science, math, and technical French. Calling on more from herself, she vowed to rise above this problem through sheer work.

Her willingness to devote herself to her studies, in spite of being behind other students at first, paid off for Marie. When the results came in, Marie had finished first in her master's degree physics course. In the following year, she was second in math.

She had been short of the needed money to take on the math degree, but several French scientists recognized her ability and helped to get Marie a scholarship. This scholarship was for being an outstanding Polish student.

Her hard work also paid off in another important way. The Society of the Encouragement of National Industry tapped Marie to complete a study designed to "relate magnetic properties of different steels to their chemical composition." Marie was told that a laboratory would be necessary to do the study.

A search began to find lab space for Marie to do her work. One day she mentioned her need for a lab to a Polish physicist she knew, and this led him to think that one of his colleagues, Pierre Curie, might be able to help Marie. It was like they were meant to meet and work together.

Pierre Curie had done some early pioneer research on magnetism. His lab was inadequate, but a professor friend mentioned to Curie that perhaps he could find some room for Marie to work there. The day they met was prophetic in the sense that it not only brought them together, resulting in their eventual marriage, but changed the future of science.

As Marie later wrote of that day when she met Pierre, "I noticed the grave and gentle expression of his face, as well as a certain abandon in his attitude, suggesting the dreamer absorbed in his reflections."

It was no easy decision for Marie to decide to later return to Paris and pursue her doctorate. It meant she would have to abandon her native Poland and also her family. The affectionate, heartfelt letters of Pierre helped to convince her. When she married Pierre, she committed to a future in Paris.

It was the work they did, itself, that drew Marie and Pierre closer and closer, leading to their marriage. As Marie later said, "Our work drew us closer, so close that we were both convinced that neither of us could find a better life companion." Marie and Pierre Curie became completely dedicated to the study of radioactivity and were some of the first to work with radium and polonium. Marie, in fact, was the one who called it radioactivity. She also named Polonium after her country.

Marie became determined to isolate radium in its pure state. She achieved her goal with the help of one of Pierre's students. This brought her a doctorate in 1903, and the Curies won the Nobel Prize for their work. Her devotion to her work enabled her to advance the future of science. A worthy cause takes devotion, time, work, and their objective, their dream, their goal kept them on the edge of great achievement.

"To catch a star on your fingertips" became Marie's inspiring fuel power as well as her legacy. Not a bad way to spend your life's energy and time. Think of and Pierre
Curie compared with the murderers in our world today who only dedicate their time and lives
to killing and hurting others.

To use your precious gift of life to make a contribution for good, to advance the world and humanity....instead of trying to drag it back to the dark ages...that is what life is all about. All honor to the names of Marie and Piere Curie. The world is a much better place because they were here.

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