The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science

if you were expecting "The Elements of Marie Curie: How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science" to be about marie skłodowska curie, you'd be 1/3 correct. the earliest portion of the book covers her youth, marriage to pierre, birth of her children, and the discovery of polonium and radium. a little later on there's even excellent section detailing marie's war efforts with x-rays. however the remaining 2/3 of the book is about the elements, her children, and the women who also worked in her industry. other than her daughters, the women whose names serve as chapter headings have little in common with marie. some knew her, some worked with her, but most saw very little of marie and their respective chapters function as mini biographies of their lives and accomplishments removed from marie skłodowska curie. there's nothing particularly wrong with that, but if you were expecting 300 pages about marie, you'll not be getting them. the sections following and discussing in-depth the science behind the work marie and everyone at the curie lab did were very interesting, but they were also often not about marie. this book, more than anything, is about specifically the science that the curies enabled and the people (nearly all whom were mentioned were women) who studied radioactivity.