Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Marie Curie: Not Attractive Enough to Represent a Threat to Anyone.


Marie Curie is best known as the first person to win two Nobel prizes. But, according to some she should have been known first and foremost as a Jew-temptress. Curie was not Jewish and four years after her husband Pierre died in a carriage accident she began an affair with renowned physicist and former student of her husband's, Paul Langevin. Langevin's estranged wife got wind of the affair and hired a PI who obtained certain letters exchanged between Curie and Langevin. These letters were then leaked to the French press who ran wild with the story labeling Curie as a home-wrecker-Jew-temptress. Ever vigilant, the French public ate the story up and Curie came back from a conference in Belgium to find her home (with her two children inside) surrounded by an angry mob. Incensed, Langevin challenged the editor of one of the newspapers running the story to a duel. The two men did face off against one another but no shots were reportedly fired. Still, Albert Einstein thought he needed to intervene on Curie's behalf so, strangely, he issued a statement, noting that Curie “has a sparkling intelligence, but despite her passionate nature, she is not attractive enough to represent a threat to anyone.”