For today's science lesson, I'm sharing a video clip I shot from my 2009 visit to the Musee Curie in Paris. (You can see other pics from the museum on the post YOUR SCIENCE LESSON FOR TODAY, ELEMENTS ARE EVERYWHERE).
In this clip Renaud Huyhn, Director of the Musee Curie, demonstrates the equipment and process Marie Curie used during her 4-year process to determine the existence of 2 new chemical elements. (The instruments are replicas). This clip ends abruptly, and my apologies for that. I have a longer version that I'm also trying to upload, but the longer version also has my "science geek" commentary, so this version is actually more educational.
I have been visiting the Musee Curie since 2007. The clip takes place in the room that was Madame Curie's actual laboratory! This area of the museum can be seen but is normally roped off, so with this clip you are not only seeing Behind the Scenes at SNB, you're also getting "Behind the Scenes at the Musee Curie."
So kids, if you think work day is tough, just remember that Madame Curie and her husband Pierre were doing this.... oh, yes, not here in a real lab... but in a drafty shed with no heat or AC, and they didn't know it at the time, but they were also getting dangerous levels of exposure to radioactivity. Even so, they both claimed these years in their make-shift shed/laboratory were the happiest of their lives... and their work made a lasting contribution to science and health care.
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