My vote goes to Emmy Noether.
I hate such sweeping claims, for they force me to denigrate great figures and achievements. Curie definitely is not the most important scientist since Darwin. The way this article writes off Einstein is laughable. As if her work wasn’t made possible by previous breakthroughs, too.
Three major turning points overhauled our understanding of physics as a whole since Newton: field theory, relativity, and quantum mechanics. The first was close enough to Darwin not to qualify, perhaps, though I think James Clerk Maxwell’s most important ideas may have come after 1859 and On the Origin. Einstein is responsible for the second, and there’s a reason he’s maybe the best known scientist ever, unless that’s Newton. Various names suggest themselves related to quantum theory: Planck, Einstein again, Bohr, Fermi, Dirac, Schrodinger, Heisenberg, etc.
There’s always Rutherford. Freud is famouser than any others besides Einstein, though I don’t count him as a scientist. What about Mendel, who also was Darwin’s contemporary, but remained un- or little-known until the turn of the century?
Marie Curie was not a giant in Physics.
I’m so sorry, but this article is simply silly.
Nothing is gained by an attempt to elevate someone above their rightful station.
In the 20th century many names come to mind when contemplating true genius, Bohr ,Einstein, Bohm, Schrodinger, Planck, Feynman, Turing et al.
Curie simply does NOT float to the top of this list.
With her bio it would have been helpfull if you posted a portrait or photo. Otherwise thanks for posting
Self-ping for later.
While everyone else was playing with radioactive materials and x-rays (Curie, Edison, etc.) Tesla looked at x-rays, rtadium and radioactive materials and told everyone that they were very dangerous to work with and precautions should be taken while handling or working with them. Because it was Tesla, they didn’t heed his advice and concluded that he had some ulterior motive for his warnings. Result, Edison’s friend and assistant working with x-rays radiated his arms so bad that the had to be amputated and he died a year later from complications. Marie Curie died from the effects of too much radiation exposure, also after not heeding Tesla’s advice.
I was a teenager when I read the biography written by her daughter Eva. It became my inspiration. Years later I left my country and came to the US as a graduate student, lived in a basement where the rats frolicked at night and the rain caused the kitchen to flood... but I was pretty sure that it was better than wherever she had had to live. I remembered reading in the biography that, as a student, Marie Curie lived for a long time on cheese and grapes (when available); I lived on plain white rice, cheese and cheap vitamins. She was my heroine, and I thought it was so romantic to endure hardships as a future scientist!