The writer is a science commentator
When Pierre Curie learnt he was about to share the Nobel Prize for physics with Henri Becquerel for their separate investigations into radioactivity, he insisted that his own laboratory partner not be overlooked. After protesting, his wife Marie Curie was added to the ticket and all three shared the 1903 award.
More than a century later, questions about fairness, diversity and representation still hang over the world’s most prestigious science prizes. The seven 2024 science laureates announced last week are all men from North America and Europe. The prize committee posted congratulations to one science laureate by citing a groundbreaking 1993 paper on which his wife was first author, attracting speculation she had been snubbed.