Marie Curie reamins the only woman to win two Nobel prizes - the first in 1903 for the discovery of radioactivity and the second in 1911 for the discovery of radium and polonium. Her discovery of radium opened the door to the exploration of the atom.

What is even more remarkable is that the Nobel prize wasn't awarded to another woman until twenty years later, and it was Marie's daughter - Irene Joliot-Curie - who received it for discovering artificial radioactivity. In turn Irene's daughter, Helene Langevin-Joliot, helped create the first atomic pile in France.

The legacy of Marie Curie, her daughter and grand-daughter makes for a fascinating story of the family who released the radioactivity that has transformed our world.

Barbara Goldsmith takes these three generations and shows how their work led from a desire for the betterment of humanity through peaceful energy, medical treatments and industrial applications to the knowledge to create the atom bomb and other weapons of mass destruction.

Barbara Goldsmith

Barbara Goldsmith Prize-winning author and social historian Barbara Goldsmith was born in New York City, graduated from Wellesley College, and holds three doctorates. A founding editor of New York magazine, she currently contributes to the New York Times, Architectural Digest, and The New Yorker. She is the author of the acclaimed bestsellers Little Gloria . . . Happy At Last, and Johnson v. Johnson. A trustee of the New York Public Library, Goldsmith also serves on the President's Commission on the Celebration of Women in American History.

Reviews:

Obsessive Genius The Inner World of Marie Curie Excellent short biography of Marie Curie . A poignant-and scientifically lucid-portrait.

The New York Times

Never a dull moment in this true tale, and Goldsmith's nostalgic yet matter-of-fact writing style blends well with her fascinating subject . Goldsmith leads the reader through a wonderland of facts with just the right blend of science and story. In the end, the mystery of the madame remains, but a deeper understanding of what she went through as a woman and a scientist shines as strong as her radium.

The San Francisco Chronicle

Succinct and well-told biography. If Ms Goldsmith has demystified aspects of Marie Curie's life and work, she has also created a figure that seems an ever more towering force not merely in the history of science but in the annals of biography itself."

The New York Sun

www.orionbooks.co.uk/11206-5/Author-Barbara-Goldsmith.htm

Observer review: Obsessive Genius by Barbara Goldsmith Science and nature: Marie, Marie, quite contrary.

Barbara Goldsmith tells how Marie Curie was thwarted at every turn by the establishment in Obsessive Genius. No wonder she was a depressive obsessive, says Robin McKie.

Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie by Barbara Goldsmith ,Weidenfeld & Nicolson

To Einstein, she was 'as cold as a herring'; much of the French scientific establishment detested her; and she was reviled for her 'wanton' antics. Yet Marie Curie was also a loyal wife, a distraught widow, a passionate lover, and a patriot. For good measure, she won two Nobel Prizes.

Such achievements provide more than enough material for any biography, though given the number already written about the discoverer of radioactivity (Susan Quinn's Marie Curie: A Life in 1995 is a fine example), any new offering has a struggle to justify its existence. The approach of Goldsmith, a member of the commission on the celebration of women in American history, is to pursue 'the real woman', she tells us.

You can make what you will of that. I can only say it made me wary, though in the end, I was won over by Obsessive Genius which is carefully conceived and commendably brief. It is only really marred by the odd outburst that reveals how uncomfortable the author is with technological terminology, a serious flaw for a scientific biographer. She confuses 'astrological' with 'astronomical'; describes early models of the atomic nucleus in various nutty ways (electron plum puddings); and includes the suggestion that 'invisible rays could be detected by the light they caused in a tube'.

There are also occasional flights of literary hyperventilation unworthy of a writer of Goldsmith's quality: 'In the past, Marie and Pierre had fought prejudice, neglect, cynicism,' she tells us. 'Now, a newfound celebrity brought with it a cornucopia full of their greatest desires.'

These excesses are particularly annoying given Goldsmith's restraint elsewhere. Hers is an overtly feminist approach to her subject and, given the appalling bigotry revealed in the book, she could easily have descended into self-righteous anger. Fortunately, she does not.

Thus, we learn, in measured terms, how Curie became the first woman to win a Nobel (shared with husband Pierre for discovering radioactivity) in 1903 but was not allowed to participate in the keynote lecture the winners traditionally give. Instead, Pierre got the sole glory, though, to his credit, he used the occasion to lavish Marie with praise.

In 1911, Curie, now widowed, won a second Nobel (for discovering radium) which the award committee then tried to rescind when news emerged of her affair with her married colleague Paul Langevin. 'I cannot accept the idea that the appreciation of the value of scientific work should be influenced by libel and slander,' Curie replied and took the prize. On her return from Sweden, she was pilloried by the press, while Langevin was ignored.

Curie applied for membership of the French Academy of Sciences, which should have been a shoo-in given her status, but when the election was held, academy president Armand Gautier announced everyone was welcome to enter the voting chamber - except women. Curie was rejected. Throughout this, she was consumed by melancholy.

Redemption was at hand, however. During the First World War, Curie worked tirelessly to use her discoveries to diagnose and treat the injuries of French troops. Then, in the twenties, her cause was taken up by US journalist Marie 'Missy' Meloney, who decided to beatify Curie as a lone, impoverished genius (in reality, she owned a series of properties across France). Curie was feted in America. Goldsmith notes: 'Ten years previously, she had been almost destroyed by the press, but now Madame Curie was restored to her iconic status.'

And finally, in 1934, her daughter, Irene, and son-in-law, Frederic, discovered artificial radioactivity, for which they received a Nobel (making Irene the second woman to get the prize). 'I will never forget the expression of intense joy which came over her [Marie] when Irene and I showed her the first artificially radioactive element in a little glass tube,' Frederic recalled.

In the end, however, Marie was done down by her offspring. Radium - 'her child', as she called the element that she kept by her bed to watch its baleful glow - had battered her body with its emanations for more than 30 years. At 66, her fingers were blackened and cracked; she was nearly blind; suffered from tinnitus; was plagued by headaches and on 3 July 1934 died of aplastic pernicious anaemia, doubtless caused by radium radiation.

As Goldsmith says, hers had been 'a tragic and glorious' life. Curie was obsessive and depressive, but, ultimately, triumphed over adversity and remains a model of scientific dedication. As she said: 'Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood.'

books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/scienceandnature/0,6121,1406678,00.html.