The Elements of Marie Curie by Dava Sobel

Author:Dava Sobel
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780008536923
Publisher: Grove Atlantic
Published: 2024-09-24T20:56:38+00:00

At first the physicists drafted into the army were sent, without much thought to their special expertise, to guard bridges and roads at strategic points, but later they were reassigned to radiology. Although X-rays illuminated the internal landscape, they yielded only a two-­dimensional picture, whether instantaneously on the fluorescent screen or later on a developed photographic plate. These images were conic projections, typically pitched at odd angles. It took an observer with knowledge of physics and geometry to see past the distortions and calculate the exact location of the object to be removed. Also, a physicist accustomed to tinkering with lab machinery could usually diagnose and address any problems that arose with the X-ray source or the electrical transformer.

François Canac, who had started out at the Curie lab in 1909 as an independent researcher, wrote to tell Marie he had crossed paths with Maurice and another colleague from the Annex: “You can imagine with what joy I had these two encounters and thus reconstituted the little scientific kingdom of Paris.”

Maurice reported frequently. “I should like to leave the village where I am,” he wrote his aunt at the end of February. “One winds up being a ruin living amid the ruins. This hole has been so thoroughly demolished that they are running a new train line through it in order to reprovision Verdun. I would give my blanket for an hour spent at the window of the quai de Béthune.”

Everywhere Marie ventured—to Verdun, to Reims, to Calais—she won converts to X-ray examination. Sometimes an entire operation would be performed “under the rays,” enabling the surgeon to follow the course of his forceps by looking at the radioscopic screen. More often, Marie would trace the image that appeared on the screen, using paper and markers she brought with her, and the sketch would serve as the surgeon’s guide. The best images were the radiographs captured on photographic plates, but these had first to be developed—in tubs and with solutions that formed a standard part of the five hundred pounds of portable radiology equipment. The radiograph provided not only the sharpest possible image but also a permanent record of the original wound. Subsequent radiographs over the ensuing days or weeks could track the progress of recovery from a fracture or other injury. It was not unusual for Marie to leave a site with the promise to return and install a quasi-permanent radiology post. Then she needed to make good on the promise, with support from the privately funded agency dedicated to helping disabled soldiers, the Patronage des blessés, or the army’s own Service de santé.

In addition to performing X-ray duty, Mme. Curie’s voiture radiologique functioned as a van for moving laboratory apparatus from the rue Cuvier to the Institut du Radium in the newly named rue Pierre-Curie. One morning in March 1915, looking ahead to the day when research would resume in the new space, Marie visited the flower market for attractive shrubs and bulbs. As she planted, the bombardment of Paris began.

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