Grand obsession Book

Grand Obsession provides a blow by blow account of the Curie dynasty and its major contributions to science and medicine. The profile is driven by the passage of time, and at 470 pages, provides voluminous details about the unfolding of time in the lives of four generations. I tend to like biographies that are less chronological and more thematic in terms of laying out qualities of extraordinary people being profiled. But because so many people's achievements were covered, perhaps this was difficult. Needless to say,at some points I felt I was being given way too much information about vacations, for example. The details, however, provide interesting insights into meetings among leading chemists and physicists of the day--really a who's who of intellectuals and geniuses. I was blown away by insights into the inter-feeding and collaborative nature of relationships, the competitions among researchers, the difficulties of breaking into the elite ranks of researchers without the "proper" credentials, the evolution of researcher as a true career (rather than hinged to teaching), and the compelling qualities of the Curie family as major events in history unfolded and as they made historical discoveries. Madame Curie is one of the most incredible scientists ever to have lived, and the collaborative way she and her husband worked together and with their proteges is fascinating and well-outweigh the information overloading offered in this book.