1110 Marie Curie - Queen Of Scientists Poem by John Knight

Oh Marie Marie - beloved of all Sceintists
Polish beauty spirited by God to the Sorbonne
Because the Russian Authorities in Poland
Decreed that 'Ladies should not study Science! ! ! ! !

Oh Marie Marie beloved of all Intelectuals
What Spirit forged thy brain to make it so....
To make it so Radioactive - that you could see
You alone could see the potential of Nuclear Energy?

Professor Bequerel - in his wisdom - chose you to probe
To probe the mystery of the mystical radiation
Radiation that ignored physical barriers - and passed
Through thick paper - but found its match in metal.

Pierre Curie - in his wisdom - chose you to be his bride
It is not good for Man to dwell alone - or Woman to work alone.
God -in His Divine wisdom - saw that the time was right
For a new source of Global Energy - NUCLEAR ENERGY!

God chooses people - God uses people
James Watt to harness the power of steam
Michael Faraday to develop the electric motor
Henri - Pierre - Marie to unleash the latent power of the Atom.

Bequerel discovered radioactivity by scientific intuition
Marie Curie quantified it by painstaking investigation
Pierre Curie - Professor of Physics at the Sorbonne
Forsook his own reaserch to support you unconditionally.

Tons and tons of Pitchblend to yield a few grams
Of POLONIUM named for your beloved Poland
And RADIUM - Queen of the radioactive elements
Thousands of times more radioactive than Uranium.

What was your reward - Satisfaction and Honour?
Satisfaction in the isolation of two new elements
Out of the 92 naturally occuring ones
Satisfaction of nailing Henri's strange emanation.

Honour of a Nobel Prize for Physics for Radiation
A Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the isolstion of....
Radium and Plonium - Honours form all the....
Major Scientific Societies in the whole World!

The honour of a visit - all the way from Moscow to Paris
Dimitri Mendeleev - Father of the Periodic Table
To thank you personally for the isolation of Radium
Which he called eka-Barium - a gap in his beloved table!

But there was also a PRICE - this is true of all Research
Your beloved Pierre died prematurely in an accident
Because he was weakened by Radiation Sickness
Your own premature from Leukemia at sixty-two.

Marie you are a miracle - the World's Greatest Scientist
Your work in the Great War - driving a mobile X-rey machine!
The establishment of the Marie Curie Radium Instuitute
The application of radioactivity to combat cancer.

Oh Marie Marie - Beloved of all Scientists
We honour you name - we respect you discoveries
We solomly promise to harness Nuclear Energy for GOOD
And never ever again use it for Weapons of Mass Destruction!