Ruth Bader Ginsburg

Everyone's life is a story, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg's is one of determination and persistence.


She was named Joan Ruth Bader when she was born on March 15, 1933, in New York City. Her father was an immigrant from the Ukraine, and her mother was born in New York. Her mother worked to put her brother through school, but wasn't able to get a degree herself. So, she wanted her daughter to have as much education and as many opportunities as possible.

                                          

When Joan was beginning school, there were several other girls named 'Joan' in her class, so her mother suggested she started going by her middle name, and thus she became 'Ruth.' Her mother, who sadly died before Ruth graduated from high school, was hoping that Ruth would become a history teacher. Little did she know where her daughter would go with her education!


Ruth met her husband, Martin Ginsburg, when she was 17 and beginning college. They were married in 1954, when she was 21. Their marriage was somewhat unconventional in that there were few 'traditional roles' in the relationship, and they agreed to pursue their careers together, both in law. She helped her husband achieve his degree, and then after the birth of their first child, Ruth enrolled in law school at Harvard. She was 1 of only 9 women in a class of 500 men. She transferred from Harvard to Columbia to complete her law degree and tied for first in her class.

Ruth Ginsburg and her daughter, Jane. Jane is currently an attorney and a professor at Columbia. Ruth's son, James, owns a classical record company called Cedille. 

                            

Early in her career she did research on international procedures in Sweden. She admired the progress Sweden had made concerning womens' rights and equality with men. Her major concern has been gender equality, and she experienced discrimination a number of times in her life. A couple of examples: when she became a professor at Rutgers Law School, she was told she would be paid less than a man because she had a husband who could support her. When she was a professor at Columbia, layoff notices were served to 25 people--all of them women. Ms. Ginsburg took the matter up with the college and found a way to lay off no one.

                       Ms. Ginsburg and her husband, daughter, son, son-in-law (w. glasses), and grandchildren. Martin Ginsburg died in 2010.

Ruth founded the Womens Rights Project with the ACLU, is the first ever woman Jewish Supreme Court Justice, and she is currently the oldest person serving on the Supreme Court. She began as a Supreme Court Justice on August 9, 1993.

Have you noticed that Justice Ginsburg wears various fancy collars with her robe? They're called a 'Jabot' (pronounced zha-BO) and some of them are worn to indicate different things https://www.bustle.com/articles/81407-all-of-ruth-bader-ginsburgs-jabots-from-her-statement-making-dissent-collar-to-her-sassy-beaded-accessories She has also worn different types of robes instead of the traditional ones.

                                          A supporter of hers made this lace collar for her; she sent a thank you note and wears it proudly

                                                      Justice Ginsburg says this mesh-like jabot is her favorite. It was made in South Africa.

                                                                                      This one is worn when she agrees with a ruling

                                                                                                   This is worn for dissent (disagreement)


Read more about Ruth Ginsburg here: https://www.oyez.org/justices/ruth_bader_ginsburg

Marie Curie

If you've heard of Marie Curie, you probably think: Radiation. Scientist. France. That's maybe all you know. But her story is much more than that.

'Marie' was born Maria Sklodowska in Poland November 7, 1867, to parents who were both teachers. Her father taught math and physics, and her mother ran a boarding house/school until Maria was born. While never wealthy, her father found it hard to get a job when he supported the Polish rebellion to free them from Russian rule. Maria's mother died when Maria was only 10.


Her father brought home experiments for her and her siblings to try out, and taught them as his own students. When she finished her basic schooling, Maria found she was not allowed to attend college in Poland because she was a woman.

One option was the 'Flying University' or 'Floating University,' a sort of underground school for women to learn the same as men. She and her sister Bronislawa took courses there, and then decided that since a woman could study alongside men in Paris, that first Bronislawa would go while Maria supported her, and then Maria would go while her sister supported her. To earn money, Maria took jobs as a governess. In one home, while she took care of the younger children, there was a grown son named Kaczmeirz with whom she fell in love. However, his parents didn't approve of him marrying a penniless woman (meaning, her father was poor), and so sadly they had to break up. Ironically, her sister Bronislawa fell in love with another man also named Kaczmeirz and did marry him.

                                                                Maria on the left, Bronislawa on the right, 1886. Maria is 21.
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It wasn't until 1891 that Maria left Poland for France (at age 26)
to finish her college degree at The Sorbonne in Paris. She barely had enough to get by and almost starved in the process, but she persevered, being interested in the qualities of magnetism. She met Pierre Curie, a French man who taught physics there. They were married in 1895. She wanted to return to Poland to teach, and Pierre declared he loved her so much, he would stop what he was working on and move to Poland with her; but when she realized she wouldn't be allowed to teach, she decided to remain in Paris, and she became a French citizen, then going by 'Marie.' She and Pierre had two daughters, Eve and Irene.


In 1903, Marie became the first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize for her study of radiation. That prize was shared with her husband Pierre and Henri Bequerel. Pierre died in 1906. He was run over by a horse and carriage. In 1911, Marie once again won a Nobel Prize for her work in chemistry. This made her the first person, and the only woman, to win twice. In her acceptance speech, she noted that she felt she shared the award with Pierre. As an adult, their daughter Irene would also study radioactivity and would also be awarded a Nobel Peace Prize.

From NobelPeacePrize.org, a description of what Marie studied:
Marie Curie studied the radiation of all compounds containing the known radioactive elements, including uranium and thorium, which she later discovered was also radioactive. She also found out that:
- you can exactly measure the strength of the radiation from uranium;
- the intensity of the radiation is proportional to the amount of uranium or thorium in the compound - no matter what compound it is;
- the ability to emit radiation does not depend on the arrangement of the atoms in a molecule; it must be linked to the interior of the atom itself - a revolutionary discovery!
When she realized that some uranium and/or thorium compounds had stronger radiation than uranium, she made the following hypothesis: there must be an unknown element in the compound which had a stronger radiation than uranium or thorium. Her work aroused the interest of her husband, Pierre Curie, who stopped his own research on crystals and joined the "detective work" with his wife. And Marie was proven right: in 1898 the Curies discovered two new radioactive elements: radium (named after the Latin word for ray) and polonium (named after Marie's home country, Poland).  

                                 This watch with 'glow in the dark' hands was quite a novelty in its time. Did you ever have a toy that glowed in the dark?



The 'laboratory' Marie and Pierre used to study was nothing but a shed with bad ventilation. A proper lab wasn't built for them until 1906.


They were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for Physics in 1903, but declined to travel to Stockholm to accecpt it. The money from the prize helped fund their research going forward.


While another scientist, Roentgen, discovered X-rays, the Curies studied radium and discovered it could be used to create Xrays as well. It has some relation to phosphorescence, like in these fish:

During World War I, Marie Curie helped create and manage traveling X-ray trucks to help with the wounded. Initially, it was thought X-rays were completely harmless. While that is not true, and X-rays these days use a fraction of the substance that they used to, X-rays led to the development of radiation therapy to shrink tumors. Digital photography is also used now, for such applications as dental imaging. Without first knowing about X-rays, we would not have CT scans or MRIs to 'see' into the body to diagnose injuries and illnesses. The Curies' work also led to the concept of using sound waves to create images. One important use of Ultrasound is to diagnose and pinpoint heart disease.

Not dancing creatures, but a heart pumping.

While her work was recognized as very important, she still did not have the respect of her countrymen in France or in Poland. She was harshly criticized for an affair she had, and was 'accused' of being a Jewish terrorist, spy, and all manner of fabricated things, mostly because she was a woman. Marie died at age 66 of anemia due to such massive exposure to radiation: her books and personal items are placed in lead boxes and can only be handled if proper safety precautions  are followed. However, her contributions to science and medicine will improve lives forever.