{"id":14707,"date":"2015-10-23T08:22:44","date_gmt":"2015-10-23T07:22:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=14707"},"modified":"2015-10-23T12:58:17","modified_gmt":"2015-10-23T11:58:17","slug":"pierre-and-marie-curie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=14707","title":{"rendered":"Pierre and Marie Curie."},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"kcite-section\" kcite-section-id=\"14707\">\n<p>I have<a href=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=9754\" target=\"_blank\"> previously shown<\/a> the grave of \u00a0William Perkin, a great british organic chemist. On a recent visit to \u00a0Paris, I went to see the crypt in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pantheonparis.com\/blog\/81-pantheon-paris-and-its-crypt\" target=\"_blank\">Panth\u00e9on<\/a>, the great french secular necropolis. What a contrast to Perkin!\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/curie2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-14708\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/curie2.jpg\" alt=\"curie2\" width=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/curie2.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/curie2-300x277.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The Curies have a crypt all to themselves (VII), and other great french scientists\u00a0such as Bertholet and Langevin as well as mathematicians such as Lagrange who are also interred in other crypts. It is surprising in fact how exclusive admission to the Pantheon is (and how much space for new tombs there still is); whilst many of the graves relate to famous soldiers dating from the french revolution and not a few politicians of course as well as famous literary figures, science and chemistry are very well represented! The French have even named a <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Pierre_et_Marie_Curie_(Paris_M\u00e9tro)\" target=\"_blank\">metro station<\/a> after the Curies &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/curie1.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-14709\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/curie1.jpg\" alt=\"curie1\" width=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/curie1.jpg 640w, https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/curie1-300x203.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 640px) 100vw, 640px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>with a\u00a0\u00a0caption that makes nice reading for the passengers whilst waiting for a train.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/curie3.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-14710\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/curie3.jpg\" alt=\"curie3\" width=\"440\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/curie3.jpg 2498w, https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/curie3-300x104.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/curie3-1024x355.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/curie3-900x312.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2498px) 100vw, 2498px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>A highly readable description of their work can be found in Oliver Sacks&#8217; book <a href=\"http:\/\/www.oliversacks.com\/books-by-oliver-sacks\/uncle-tungsten\/\"><em>Uncle Tungsten<\/em><\/a>. And if you ever visit Paris, remember to ask to go to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=12539\" target=\"_blank\">Gay-Lussac&#8217;s lab<\/a>\u00a0(who is not interred in the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.pantheonparis.com\/blog\/81-pantheon-paris-and-its-crypt\" target=\"_blank\">Panth\u00e9on<\/a>),\u00a0preserved in a time-warp\u00a0from 100 years ago.<\/p>\n<!-- kcite active, but no citations found -->\n<\/div> <!-- kcite-section 14707 -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I have previously shown the grave of \u00a0William Perkin, a great british organic chemist. On a recent visit to \u00a0Paris, I went to see the crypt in the Panth\u00e9on, the great french secular necropolis. What a contrast to Perkin!\u00a0 The Curies have a crypt all to themselves (VII), and other great french scientists\u00a0such as Bertholet [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":5,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[565],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[2661],"class_list":["post-14707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-historical"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Pierre and Marie Curie. - Henry Rzepa&#039;s Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=14707\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pierre and Marie Curie. - Henry Rzepa&#039;s Blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have previously shown the grave of \u00a0William Perkin, a great british organic chemist. On a recent visit to \u00a0Paris, I went to see the crypt in the Panth\u00e9on, the great french secular necropolis. 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The factory where he founded the British (nay, the World) fine organic chemicals industry is in\u00a0Greenford,\u00a0just up the road from where we live. The factory used to be close to the Black Horse pub (see below) on the banks of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Interesting chemistry&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Interesting chemistry","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?cat=4"},"img":{"alt_text":"Perkin-Factory-plaque","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ch.imperial.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/Perkin-Factory-plaque.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3507,"url":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=3507","url_meta":{"origin":14707,"position":1},"title":"The colour of purple","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"February 24, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"One of my chemical heroes is William Perkin, who in 1856 famously (and accidentally) made the dye mauveine as an 18 year old whilst a student of August von\u00a0Hofmann, the founder of the Royal College of Chemistry (at what is now\u00a0\u00a0Imperial College London). Perkin went on to found the British\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/220px-Rees1.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":25827,"url":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=25827","url_meta":{"origin":14707,"position":2},"title":"A look at (one of) the dyes used in the  Bayeaux tapestry.","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"January 3, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"I have previously looked at the pigments used to colour the Book of Kells, which dates from around 800 AD and which contained arsenic sulfide as the yellow colourant. The Bayeaux tapestry is a later embroidery dating probably from around 1077 and here the colours are based entirely on mordanted\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":20333,"url":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=20333","url_meta":{"origin":14707,"position":3},"title":"The history of  Alizarin (and madder).","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"October 18, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The Royal Society of Chemistry historical group (of which I am a member) organises two or three one day meetings a year. Yesterday the October meeting covered (amongst other themes) the fascinating history of madder and its approximately synthetic equivalent alizarin. Here I add a little to the talk given\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Historical&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Historical","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?cat=565"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":23391,"url":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=23391","url_meta":{"origin":14707,"position":4},"title":"The chemistry of scents:  Vetifer oil.","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"February 28, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"I have occasionally covered the topic of colours here, such as those of flowers and minerals, since it is at least possible to illustrate these using photographs or colour charts to illustrate the theme. But when Derek Lowe took a break from his remarkable coverage of the COVID pandemic to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;General&quot;","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":17376,"url":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?p=17376","url_meta":{"origin":14707,"position":5},"title":"Revisiting (and maintaining) a twenty year old web page. Mauveine: The First Industrial Organic Fine-Chemical.","author":"Henry Rzepa","date":"February 2, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Almost exactly 20 years ago, I started what can be regarded as the precursor to this blog. As part of a celebration of this anniversary, I revisited the page to see whether any of it had withstood the test of time. Here I recount what I discovered. The site itself\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Chemical IT&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Chemical IT","link":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/?cat=2"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/038-1024x419.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"authors":[{"term_id":2661,"user_id":1,"is_guest":0,"slug":"admin","display_name":"Henry Rzepa","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/897b6740f7f599bca7942cdf7d7914af5988937ae0e3869ab09aebb87f26a731?s=96&d=blank&r=g","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14707"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14717,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14707\/revisions\/14717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14707"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ch.ic.ac.uk\/rzepa\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fppma_author&post=14707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}