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The Scientific Greats: A Series of Drawings

By MOISES MENENDEZ, MD, FACS

Marie Skłodowska Curie (1867-1934)

Marie Curie was a Polish and naturalized-French physicist and chemist who conducted pioneering research on radioactivity. She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize, the first person and only woman to win twice, the only person to win a Nobel Prize in two different sciences, and was part of the Curie family legacy of five Nobel Prizes.

Curie was born Marya Skłodowska in 1867 in Warsaw. Her family struggled under a repressive Tsarist regime, which was trying to stamp out vestiges of Polish culture. As a teenager, Curie made a pact with her sister Bronya: She would support Bronya while she was in medical school in Paris, and then Bronya would pay Curie’s way.

From the age of 17, for six years, Curie worked as a governess and tutor, while attempting to study in her spare time. At the age of 24, she enrolled at the Sorbonne University. She could not attend the University of Warsaw, as her brother had; the Russian government prohibited women from attending university anywhere in its empire.

It was in Paris, in 1894, where she met Pierre Curie, a scientist working in the city, and who she married a year later. For the following years, Curie and her husband handled radioactive materials without the proper protection since they were not fully aware of the dangers of radiation.

Curie’s discovery of radium and polonium initiated a new area of chemistry, radium chemistry, and, in turn, paved the way for the application of radioisotopes in medicine, industry and many other areas. Pierre was killed in an accident. Despite being a single mother of two and a widow, Curie continued her research and teaching, as she took over Pierre’s teaching position at Sorbonne.

In 1911, Curie won her second Nobel Peace prize in chemistry. Radiotherapy was developed from the discoveries of Curie, who was convinced that ionizing radiation could be the perfect weapon in the fight against cancer. Since then, radiotherapy has seen continual improvements through technological progress.

During World War I, Curie was involved in the first use of radiology to treat wounded soldiers, and she trained the army’s radiologist nurses at what is now known as the Curie Institute, in Paris. At the time, medicine had few means of diagnosis and the use of x-rays was just beginning. With the outbreak of the conflict, Curie volunteered to operate the radiology equipment near the front line. However, these were few and not mobile. The engineers had adapted a Renault truck and placed an x-ray machine on it, thus creating the first mobile radiology unit that served to support medical aid on the battlefront. In a short time, the number of these vehicles increased, and Curie, then 47, trained about 50 nurses in the use of these radiology devices, including her daughter Irene.

Curie died in 1934, aged 66, in France, due to aplastic anemia brought on by exposure to radiation while carrying test tubes of radium in her pockets during research and in the course of her service in the World War I mobile x-ray units that she had set up.

In Paris, April 20, 1995, making amends for centuries of Gallic sexism, male leaders watched as Francois Mitterrand, the former president of France, gave the eulogy speech while transferring the ashes of Curie and her husband Pierre to the famous Pantheon. This episode made Curie the first woman to be buried in the Pantheon for her own accomplishments. Ironically, there is an inscription at the façade of this monument that reads: “Aux grands hommes la patrie reconnaissante.” (The grateful nation recognizes great men.)

Despite her greatness, Curie suffered from the male chauvinism prevalent during her heyday, and she was denied membership in the Academy of Sciences, an allmale institution at the time. ■

Marie Skłodowska Curie (1867-1934)

2014 Work was done on white watercolor paper and graphite, 20×24 Artist: Moises Menendez, MD, FACS

Sources

Carvalho FP. As descobertas científicas de Marie Curie e o seu legado à ciência e à humanidade. Instituto Tecnológico e Nuclear. 2011;3(2):1-11. Goldsmith B. Obsessive Genius: The Inner World of Marie Curie (Great Discoveries). Atlas Books; 2005:13-17. Grammaticos PC. Pioneers of nuclear medicine, Madame Curie. Hell J Nucl Med. 2004;7(1):30-31.

Ridesharing

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and disability in people under the age of 65,” said lead study author Christopher Conner, MD, PhD, a neurosurgery resident at McGovern Medical School at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth). “The reality of the situation is that once the accident or the trauma has occurred, we’re playing catch up. So, by far, the best treatment that we have is prevention.”

Dr. Conner explained that this study was motivated by the observation among his colleagues that there had been a decrease in car accidents on Friday and Saturday nights. The researchers hypothesized that ridesharing services had a significant effect on the number of motor vehicle crash traumas that occurred on these weekend evenings, when many people may be using the services to avoid impaired driving.

To investigate this potential relationship, Dr. Conner and his colleagues obtained data from Uber, Google and hospital records from the two major trauma centers in Houston.

“Once we were able to dig into that with hospital-level data, which is data that’s accurate down to the hour, we were able to tease apart these details,” Dr. Conner said. “I think people had been unable to do so with the data in the past.”

The researchers found that motor vehicle crash trauma decreased by 23.8% during peak trauma periods (Friday and Saturday evenings) after the introduction of Uber ridesharing services in Houston. Analysis of patient demographics showed that the reduction in motor vehicle crash trauma was most pronounced among people younger than 30 years (rate of reduction, 38.9%).

“Empirically, the majority of motor vehicle crashes that result in injuries requiring people to come to our trauma center are in some way due to impaired driving—either the injured patient or someone else who hit the injured patient,” said study author John Harvin, MD, an associate professor of surgery at McGovern Medical School at UTHealth. “It only makes sense that decreasing the amount of impaired driving would result in fewer injuries.”

In addition, rideshare use was linked to a reduction in convictions for impaired driving (incidence rate ratio, 0.76; 95% CI, 0.73-0.78; P<0.001). Notably, convictions fell the most in Houston’s core. “As someone who has lived here for 17 years, that made perfect sense,” Dr. Conner said. “I thought, that’s exactly where the bars are; that’s where all the people under 30 are.”

An important caveat to the study is that the data are only representative of the Houston area, which is a heavily cardependent city. “It would be interesting to look at other cities with different layouts and public transport to see what effect, if any, ridesharing may have had,” Dr. Harvin said.

In the future, the authors plan to look at national trends by obtaining similar high-granularity data from across the country.

Ultimately, Dr. Conner hopes these data will help people to “always think twice before driving impaired.

“I hope, when we talk about rideshares and their impact on our society, we at least acknowledge the fact that this is something that is of major benefit, he said. “I think that it’s definitely something that we need to consider as part of the broader conversation.” ■

Motor vehicle crash trauma decreased by 23.8% during peak trauma periods (Friday and Saturday evenings) after the introduction of Uber ridesharing services in Houston.