The
movie Madame Curie is definitely something every Science student should watch.
Equipped with wonderful lessons about research and scientific works, the movie
will leave you spellbound for hours.
It
is Marie Curie’s determination and passion that paved way to her success in
discovering radium and its isolation from barium. These characteristics
combined with curiosity, hard work and wisdom should be present in all aspiring
scientists of today’s generation.
Marie
Curie’s curiosity about Becquerel’s work bothered her for quite some time. She
thought it was foolish but through Pierre’s encouragement, she started
developing experiments that could prove her theories. Nowadays, with several
discoveries popping up almost everyday, each one of us should not be discouraged
to look for new and unknown things because there are still a lot to be
discovered and studied; we just have to stick our nose in the right place at
the right time.
As
their work progressed, they ask the help from the University. They wanted to have
a bigger laboratory so that they could continue their work without hassle.
However, they were given a place worse than a warehouse – a dirty lab with no
equipment at all, water leaked during rainy season. Pierre decided against it
but Marie’s humility made them accept the offer. With this in mind, every
aspiring scientist should never ever be arrogant. Confident, yes, but not
arrogant. For in humility, we are lifted and raised to something great we could
never imagine.
Once
they accepted the offer, the couple used their limited resources to carry out
their experiment. They began improvising equipment that could be used to
achieve what they want, that is, the isolation of radium. Months turned into
years, but they were still unsuccessful in isolating radium. But with
determined hearts and passion, they still continued their experiment, analyzing
every step to determine if errors were present in their experiment and
rechecking and rechecking their computations for any possible miscalculations. Since
students like us are just starting our careers in the field of research, it is
very advisable if we know how to be resourceful since we do not have that large
financial assistance to accommodate the needs of our research. Likewise, every
student should have a determined mind and passionate heart to finish their
research. It is true that not all the time we will get a positive result. There
will come a time that we a negative result will be produced or no result at
all. But still, negative or no result is still a result. Hence, we should not
give up rather we should be more determined and hardworking to get the result
we want to achieve. Lastly, we should be wiser, be well-researched, and be a
critical thinker so that we can be the best researchers/scientists of today’s
generations.
“But no one of us can do much. If each of us,
perhaps can catch some gleam of knowledge which modesty lose its efficient of
itself, add to man’s dream of truth. It is by these small candles in our
darkness that we see before us little by little the dim outlines of that great
plan that shapes the universe.” – Marie Curie, Madame Curie (1943)
