[Review of the book Pierre Curie, 1859-1906:
Le reve scientifique (Un Savant, Une Epoque)]
Isis
2001
Nye, Mary Jo
*Reviewing Author
Originally published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society
and can be found at: http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublication?journalCode=isis
Citation: Nye, M. J. (2001, December). [Review of the book Pierre Curie, 1859-1906: Le reve scientifique
(Un Savant, Une Epoque )]. Isis, 92(4), 789-790. Available from JSTOR website:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/3080384
BOOKREVIEWS-ISIS,92: 4 (2001)
789
edy. He suffered from ague (now identified as til his death in April 1906. As Loic Barbonotes
malaria), contracted during his Languedoc so- in this finely detailed biography,the collaborajourn. His patents were circumventedand suc- tion can be followed in laboratorynotebooks in
cessfully challenged in a series of courtrulings. which the clear, precisely dated handwritingof
All his industrialventuresfailed, and he lost his Marie Curie alternates with the abbreviated,
entire dowry in the mayhem of the FrenchRev- barelydecipherable,and undatedhandwritingof
olution. To complete the grim picture, his mar- her husband. Their work on radioactivity has
riage was unhappy and his only son died in a been well studied and well documentedby hischildhood accident.
torians, science journalists, and biographers.
The strict chronology of Brandy, Balloons, MarieCurie,nee Sklodowska,has been the suband Lampssometimesrendersthe narrativea lit- ject of excellent biographicalstudies.
tle tedious, and it is not always clear from where
What has been missing from the story, notes
the author quotes. But the aficionado will find Barbo, is a detailed study of PierreCurie, espemany interesting anecdotes. The historian may cially his scientific work before his experiments
mine this work for the intricacies of personal with radioactivity.Marie Curieherself wrotethe
credit, ranging from the polite language em- firstbiography,Pierre Curie,publishedby Payot
ployed in the letters throughthe intriguesto the in 1923. A more recent book is Anna Hurvic's
workingof patentlaw in bothFranceandBritain. Pierre Curie (Flammarion,1995), which Barbo
The book contains thirty-fourpages with color mentions only in a footnote. Both Hurvic and
plates of variousArgandlamps and manyblack- Barbo largely follow the main themes of Marie
and-white reproductions.Almost all are very Curie's originalaccountof PierreCurie's family
nicely producedand renderbrowsing a pleasant life, his close relationshipwith his older brother
experience. It is striking that the design of the Jacques,the nonelite characterof his Paris edulamps is not discussed at all. Lampsproducedin cation, and the difficulties he faced in getting a
Britainresemble silverware,whereasthe French first-rankacademicappointmentbecause he was
lamps areusuallyjapanned.The Sheffieldsilver- not a graduateof the Ecole Normale Superieure
plated candlestickin the illustrationis a typical or Ecole Polytechnique.The biographersall emexample. The containerat the top holds the oil phasize not only his sense of independencebut
flowing to the wicks contained in the cylinders also his impatiencewith many social ritualsand
on each arm. The perforationsin each "elbow" forms, includingtraditionalprocedures(namely,
let in the air.
visits) thatwere expectedfromcandidatesfor the
ARNEHESSENBRUCHAcademy of Sciences and traditionalbehavior
(namely, acceptance)when selected for the Legion of Honor. (Curie declined.) Like Hurvic,
Barbo discusses some aspects of PierreCurie's
* Nineteenth Century
scientific careerthat Marie Curiepassed overfor example, his lengthy and troublednegotiaLoic Barbo. Pierre Curie, 1859-1906: Le reve tions with the dean of the faculty of sciences at
Geneva in 1900.
scientifique.(Un Savant, Une Epoque.) 336 pp.,
Where Barbo makes a clearly importantand
illus., figs., apps., index. Paris:Belin, 1999. (Panovel contributionto biographicalunderstanding
per.)
of Pierre Curie is in his detailed analysis of
Pierre and Marie Curie have been among the Curie's work on crystals, piezoelectricity,magbest-knownnames in the history of science ever netism, and the physical significance of symsince they, along with HenriBecquerel,received metry during the period from 1880 to 1898. In
the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. The award collaborationwith his brother, who completed
recognized the significanceof the Curies' study his doctoralthesis on aspectsof theirwork,Curie
of the spontaneous radiation emitted by sub- discovered piezoelectricity, or electrical phestances termed"radioactive"that Becquerelhad nomena in crystals caused by changes in presdiscovered in salts of uranium.The Nobel cita- sure. The two developed instrumentsthat betion did not mention the Curies' discovery of came importantfor the precise detectionof small
radium,which could thus be attributedto Marie electric charges. Following up on symmetry
Curie alone when she was awarded the Nobel properties in crystals, Pierre Curie used the
Prize in Chemistry in 1911, five years after mathematicaltool of group theory as a tool for
PierreCurie was killed in a street accident.
classificationof symmetryproperties,publishing
Pierre Curie is most famous for his collabo- the text Sur la symetrie dans les phenomenes
rative work with his wife from January1898 un- physiques in 1894. For his doctoral thesis of
790
BOOKREVIEWS-ISIS,92: 4 (2001)
1895, however, Curiefocused on the experimental problem in magnetism of the effects on a
body's magnetic propertiesof different conditions of temperature,pressure, and intensity of
the magnetic field. He determinedwhat came to
be called the "Curie temperature"or "Curie
point" of transition between ferromagnetism
(strongmagneticproperties)and paramagnetism
(feeble magnetic properties). Although Curie
avoided theoreticalquestions in his experimentally focused thesis, Paul Langevin gave a successful explanation in 1905 in terms of paired
and unpairedelectrons.
Also of special interestin Barbo's work is his
account of Pierre Curie's teaching at the Ecole
Municipalede Physiqueet de Chimie Industrielles (EMPCI) and later at the Sorbonne. At the
EMPCItherewas considerablecriticismthatCurie's teachingwas too difficult,especially on the
subjectsof piezoelectricity,magnetism,electrolysis, and symmetry.After 1900, at the Sorbonne,
Curie lectured on cathode rays, x-rays, and radioactivity. As Barbo notes, the fact that Curie
never publishedhis course notes meantnot only
thathistorianscould not findthem easily but also
thatCurie's studentshad no help fromtextbooks.
A matterof continuinginterestand some perplexity for anyone studying the Curies' early
work in radioactivityis their apparentindifference to the dangersthe radiationsposed to their
health, even though Pierre Curie himself had
studied biological effects of radiationon small
animals.By 1905 PierreCuriewas takingstrychnine as an antidotefor pain and fatigue, writing
his friend Georges Gouy that he thoughthe was
suffering from neurastheniarather than rheumatism. ErnestRutherfordnoted years laterthat
he may have been fortunatein having smaller
samples of radioactivematerialsat his disposal
thanthe Curies.In commentingon these matters,
as well as in constructinghis narrativeand analysis of many aspects of the scientific work of
PierreCurie,Loic Barbo has made an important
contributionto the historyof modem science and
French science.
Riemann,whose name is synonymouswith several of the deepest results and most fertile ideas
of modem mathematics.Detlef Laugwitz, perhaps best known for his contributionsto and reflections on nonstandardanalysis, has had a
long-standinginterestin the history of analysis.
Whathe offers here in the form of an intellectual
biographyrepresentsthe firstseriousdetailedassessment of Riemann's intellectual legacy.
Laugwitz's study aims to accountfor the enduring importanceof Riemann's ideas, in part by
contrastingthese with other competing research
traditions and methodological approaches.Arguing forcefully throughout that Riemann's
mathematicswas based on the primacy of conceptual over computational considerations,
Laugwitz also takes note of the profoundinfluence this conceptual approachhad on modem
mathematics. According to Laugwitz, Riemann's ideas graduallyoverturnedconventional
views regardingthe representationof mathematical constructs,paving the way for modernism
in the traditionof RichardDedekind,David Hilbert,andNicolaus Bourbaki.Lookingbackward,
Laugwitz also has much to say about earlierresearchtraditionsandthe impactof LeonhardEuler, AugustinCauchy, KarlFriedrichGauss, and
Peter Gustav Lejeune Dirichlet on the young
Riemann. But the viability of his overall interpretationof the Riemannianlegacy hinges on his
assertions concerning the reception of Riemann's work, a thorny issue in the historiography of moder mathematics.
In the 1860s several circumstancesacted to
underminethe smooth reception of Riemann's
ideas; indeed, that receptionextended over several decades. Before his early death, Riemann
had a brief teaching careerin Gottingen,during
which he failed to attractdisciples capable of
spreading his gospel. Although some scholars
have suggested that the master himself was no
gifted proselytizer,Laugwitz argues otherwise,
pressinghis case for Riemann'spedagogicaltalents. Drawing on lecture notes only recently
MARY Jo NYE published by Erwin Neuenschwander,he observes that these contain the very first introduction to elementary complex function theory as
developed by Cauchy. Indeed, their content difDetlef Laugwitz. Bernhard Riemann, 1826fers
slightly from KonradKnopp's popular
1866: Turning Points in the Conception of littleonly
textbook Funktionentheorie(1913). What
Mathematics.Translatedby Abe Shenitzer with
preventedthe disseminationof these fertile ideas
Hardy Grant and Sarah Shenitzer. xviii +
andwhy the sixty-yeardelay?Laugwitzstrongly
357 pp., illus., index. Boston/Basel: Birkhauser,
suggests that it was not Riemann who should
1999. DM 178.
bear the blame but, rather,the German matheNo mathematicianof the nineteenthcenturyhad matical community, which failed to rise to the
a greaterimpact on the twentieththan Bernhard challengeof absorbinghis ideas. Even those who