“Even now, nearly a century after her death, Marie Curie remains the only female scientist most people can name,” writes Dava Sobel at the opening of her shining portrait of the sole Nobel laureate decorated in two separate fields of science—Physics in 1903 with her husband Pierre and Chemistry by herself in 1911. And yet, Sobel makes clear, as brilliant and creative as she was in the laboratory, Marie Curie was equally passionate outside it. Grieving Pierre’s untimely death in 1906, she took his place as professor of physics at the Sorbonne; devotedly raised two brilliant daughters; drove a van she outfitted with x-ray equipment to the front lines of World War I; befriended Albert Einstein and other luminaries of twentieth-century physics; won support from two U.S. presidents; and inspired generations of young women the world over to pursue science as a way of life.

As Sobel did so memorably in her portrait of Galileo through the prism of his daughter, she approaches Marie Curie from a unique angle, narrating her remarkable life of discovery and fame alongside the women who became her legacy—from France’s Marguerite Perey, who discovered the element francium, and Norway’s Ellen Gleditsch, to Mme. Curie’s elder daughter, Irène, winner of the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. For decades the only woman in the room at international scientific gatherings that probed new theories about the interior of the atom, Marie Curie traveled far and wide, despite constant illness, to share the secrets of radioactivity, a term she coined. Her two triumphant tours of the United States won her admirers for her modesty even as she was mobbed at every stop; her daughters, in Ève’s later recollection, “discovered all at once what the retiring woman with whom they had always lived meant to the world.”

With the consummate skill that made bestsellers of Longitude and Galileo’s Daughter, and the appreciation for women in science at the heart of her most recent The Glass Universe, Dava Sobel has crafted a radiant biography and a masterpiece of storytelling, illuminating the life and enduring influence of one of the most consequential figures of our time.

Praise for The Elements of Marie Curie:

“Ms. Sobel takes the familiar story of Marie Curie and crosscuts it. The journey of the Polish-French physicist who helped unlock the secrets of radioactivity was never straightforward, but it was also never taken alone. Woven into the account of Curie’s life are the lives of other women . . . What sets Ms. Sobel’s biography apart isn’t the timeline or the events of her subject’s life; it’s those women of science whose lives intersected with Curie’s, a cast of brilliant researchers and thinkers that the author skillfully weaves into her narrative.”—Brandy Schillace, Wall Street Journal 

“A fresh portrait of the icon and two-time Nobel laureate . . . Well-researched and compellingly written . . . The Elements of Marie Curie beautifully illuminates the science and the scientists that Curie devoted her life to developing . . . Sobel gives us a chance to share in the excitement and delight of the work that made Curie and her dozens of scientific offspring glow so brightly.”—Michelle Francl, Nature

“Sobel writes elegantly about science, unspooling Curie’s pursuits in the lab like a mystery.”—Kate Zernike, New York Times Book Review

“Paints a human portrait not of an isolated genius, but of a woman who existed in and built scientific community . . . Sobel analyzes her subject with care and thorough detailed historical and personal accounts . . . An essential read for anyone who values works that highlight women in the sciences.”—Shelf Awareness (starred review)

“Preeminent science writer Sobel brings forward a new array of female scientists in this vital portrait of Marie Curie and the women who joined her in her world-altering Paris laboratory . . . As Sobel vividly tells their tales of valor, diligence, and brilliance, she fuses elements human and scientific to create a dramatic group portrait encompassing passion, struggle, poignancy, and triumph.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Admiring biography, by the noted popular historian of science, of the extraordinarily accomplished Madame Curie . . . A lucid, literate biography, celebrating a scientific exemplar who, for all her fame, deserves to be better known.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Paints a human portrait not of an isolated genius, but of a woman who existed in and built scientific community . . . Sobel analyzes her subject with care and through detailed historical and personal accounts . . . An essential read for anyone who values works that highlight women in the sciences.”—Shelf Awareness

“Marie Curie is one of the greatest scientists of all time and a pioneer for women. In this book Dava Sobel has brought her and those she inspired to life, with her characteristic accessible and scholarly writing. A book for our times celebrating both science and women.”—Paul Nurse, author of What Is Life?

“Marie Skłodowska Curie was unique, but her influence irradiated the futures of 45 women who worked in her laboratory. By restoring these pioneers to visibility, acclaimed historian Dava Sobel casts fresh light on the life and achievements of the first scientist to win two Nobel prizes.”—Dr. Patricia Fara, author of Science: A Four Thousand Year History

“Hard to put down! A wonderfully written biography of Marie Curie, that does not step away from the physics but also includes her life outside the lab, even including the black and white cat!”—Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell