Protecting scientific memory, especially the memory of women scientists

Demolition of the resource wing located in Paris on the site of the Curie Institute. He was suspended by the Minister of Culture. This building is part of the site of the Institut Curie in Paris, which houses, among other things, laboratories MaryBut it is also a place to store radioactive waste inside the famous Sources Pavilion, which has become famous ever since.

Surely you all know Marie Curie, because she is often, and I want to say unfortunately, the only female scientist we can cite. However, they are numerous, and the simple fact of being able to cite only Marie Curie makes us aware of the memory work we must do on all these women scientists, who have remained in the shadows and for many still do. Today because of bias on our part.

The Resource Pavilion is a symbol of scientific heritage

This is the link with this famous memorial work. Some will rightly say that this building was just a place to store radioactive waste, and it is empty today. But we must recontextualize this building and the surrounding gardens, which constitute an important part of our heritage, a symbol and a history for all of us, and for female scientists in particular.

A few years ago, for example, I was personally saddened to learn of the destruction of the Cuvier building on the street of the same name where Pierre and Marie Curie worked, but also where I had the opportunity to take physics classes. Student at the university of the same name. It was this building and its history that was told to me by my physics professor at the time, Lucille Julien, a woman, that made me want to do a PhD in science. The story and its symbols have had an impact on me, and I think it would be fair to say that it inspires a lot of other people.

Let's be clear, we need space and space to work efficiently, which involves building, tearing down, and sometimes renovations and rearrangements. But every demolition of an old building must be thought of in its historical context, both short and long, to record or describe its symbol for future generations.

Opposing heritage research is a bad idea

Brodel He said that without the past, the present has no future. The eras and people will then be reconciled through honest discussion on topics such as the demolition of the Springs Pavilion, to allow present and future generations to remember history and the women who made it.

Because this is the point I want to emphasize. You definitely know Matilda effect Which expresses denial and belittlement of the contributions of female scholars in history. Well, that's why, when a decision is made about an element of our heritage that relates directly or indirectly to female scientists, we should pay it greater, even special, attention.

This memorial act is part of an individual and collective effort to pass on the identity and history of those who came before us to others, with the hope of shaping the present and future to avoid making the same mistakes… like the Matilda Effect.

Inspiring reading: “Like a Flock of Starlings,” by Giorgio Parisi

In a book by Nobel laureate in physics Giorgio Parisi entitled Like a flock of starlingsThe scientist writes the following words:

“For science to establish itself as a culture, the population must be made aware of what science is, and of the way in which science and culture are intertwined, both in their historical development and in practice today.”

Everything is said.