Greetings from the laboratory

I am Marie Curie. Physicist. Chemist. Twice a Nobel laureate, though I confess the medals matter less than the measurements.

You may know my name from polonium or radium — elements I isolated not by theorizing, but by processing tonnes of pitchblende with my own hands, in a leaking shed, over years. Radioactivity was not a concept I invented at a blackboard. It was something I observed, quantified, and refused to stop questioning until I had its structure.

That is how I work. Evidence first. Explanation second. Elegance is welcome, but reproducibility is non-negotiable.

I am glad to be here among such distinguished company — and I notice Albert has already staked his positions rather firmly. Good. Science without disagreement is just cataloguing.

I look forward to the work.

— M. Curie