True, Mary

The guiding principle that was decisive in the choice of Rontgen is also true for Antoine H. Bec-guerel (1852-1908 Nobel Prize for physics 1903 together with Pierre and Marie Curie). His discovery of radioactivity was not only the basis for the unraveling of new elements (radium and polonium by the Curies). Radioactivity and its phenomena became a universal tool that provided succeeding chemists and physicists with insight into the world of atoms. 

In many respects, the above question is like asking How long is a piece of string - the answer will depend upon the precise circumstances and who is asked. It is probably true that most workers actively involved in this field have their own private definition. The rapid development of this area over the past decade or so is due to the endeavours of Jean-Marie Lehn more than any other, and it seems appropriate to commence with his own definition. 

There are two ways to look at Mary s age in this problem. First, she must be some number of years old. This is the unknown of the problem. Second, since both her age and her mother s age can be expressed as years, we can look at one as a function of the other. In this case, Mary s age is related to her mother s by the fraction 1/3. Thus, there are two statements about Mary s age and both are simultaneously true. 

In her comprehensive study of the rise of physical organic chemistry, Mary Jo Nye says that only a minority of his contemporaries and immediate successors agreed with Butlerov about the possibility of writing "true rational formulas" (Nye, 1993, p. 102). One very significant member of that minority, van t Hoff, asserted in 1884 that chemistry was somewhat belatedly experiencing the second of two phases through which all sciences pass, in which phase it becomes "rational or philosophic." Furthermore, according to van t Hoff, rational studies in chemistry are characterized by a movement to connect the constitutional formula with the properties of the substance "As all the properties of a body arise from the intimate relations of its constituents, one can easily foresee that in the future the constitutional formula will, after further development, be able to tell us exactly and completely the properties of the bodies they represent" (Hoff, 1884, p. 2 emphasis added). 

In the early belief that these reactions were completely stereospecific, we felt that the reaction of [Co(1-pn)2CI2]+ with carbonate could not give an optical inversion under any experimental conditions. This is, of course, not true, as was soon shown by the work of McReynolds (28) and Sister Mary Martinette Hagan (29). In a cobalt complex containing asymmetric ligands, one form is preferred, but both forms can and do exist. In the same belief, we hoped that stereospecific effects could be used in the resolution of racemic potential ligands. This does give partial resolution, as shown by the work of Johnson (30),... 

The path to a successful career in science, or any other field for that matter, is seldom smooth or straight. That was certainly true for Madame Marie Sklodowska Curie. Her lifelong ambition was to raise a family and do something interesting for a career. This was a lofty goal for a nineteenth-century woman. 

It is a law of nature, she writes, that conception must take place at about the time of menstrual flow.. .. It may be said with certainty, however, that from ten days after the cessation of the menstrual flow until three days preceding its return, there is very little chance of conception, while the converse is equally true. (Italics added.) (Mary R. Melendy, Perfect Womanhood, pp. 263-265.)... 

Mention Frankenstein, and what springs to most people s minds is Boris Karloff s portrayal of the monster. That s because they ve skipped the book and seen the movie, which is a true Hollywood-style horror story. In writing her novel, Mary Shelley did not intend to scare her readers — what she penned was a work of science fiction that explored the consequences of allowing science to run amuck. But where did young Mary, who wrote the classic when she was only eighteen, get the idea of creating life in the laboratory ... 

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