Marie Curie - Radioactivity Queen! (ExCred - DTC475)

I really admire one of the most famous and awarded female physicists/chemists, Marie Curie. She performed much research, including being the pioneer of the field of radioactivity. For her accomplishments, she was awarded 2 Nobel Prizes. One of these was for Physics and the other for Chemistry. 2 Nobel Prizes, at that time, was unheard of for a man. Marie was a woman that was the first person to receive 2 Nobels. Despite losing her mother and sister at an early age, Marie (born Maria Sklodowska) struggled to make something of herself throughout her young life.
Marie Curie accomplished in her lifetime what most scientists could only dream or imagine, despite a rocky upbringing. I remember our study of Marie Curie in my high school physics class. I remember how very active and award-winning she was in her time. No other woman at that time had even close the success in the science or technology field as Curie had achieved. All this after she overcame much toil and trouble. Marie's oldest sister died when Marie was only 10 years old, and her mother died when she was a mere 12 years old. She struggled with this, even to the point of giving up her Catholic faith and becoming agnostic.
After more struggles with family misfortunes and a depressing split from would-be husband, Kazimierz Zorawski, she headed to Paris, France. She would proceed with her studies of Physics, Mathematics, and Chemistry at the University of Paris. While she was attending the University of Paris, she studied and also tutored. She has to earn her stay at the college. Success started to come her way in 1893, when Marie earned a Physics degree. In 1894, only a year later after her first degree, Marie had earned her Mathematics degree. Both of these degrees came from her attendance and hard studies at the University of Paris. Her soon to be husband, Pierre Curie, had now met Marie just shortly after Marie earned her degrees. Both Pierre and Marie had shown an exuberant interest in the science of magnetism. This common interest drew them together. In 1895, Pierre and Marie married. There was now a loving couple that knew much of the workings of Chemistry and Physics.
Almost everyone that knows the name Marie Curie knows it for the 2 Nobel Prizes awarded to her. Her first Nobel Prize was for Physics and was awarded to her, husband Pierre, and Professor Henri Becquerel in 1903. This Nobel Prize soon made Marie and her husband very famous throughout the world. If being the first woman to receive a Nobel Prize was not enough, she would win her second Nobel Prize in 1911. This time it was for her work in Chemistry; she discovered radium and polonium, and performed tremendous research on radium and radioactivity. Marie Curie would become the very first person in history to win 2 Nobel Prizes for her stunning research and achievement.
Pierre Curie had been killed in 1906 by a horse-drawn carriage. Marie became very depressed over her husband's death. After the death of Pierre, the University of Paris held on to Pierre's position as professor and awarded it to Marie. Marie would now have complete control and say over the labaratory at the University. This new position was also the first of its kind for a woman at the University of Paris. The second Nobel Prize came 5 years later after Marie's new appointment at the Sorbonne.
WWI saw Curie help soldiers with injuries with radium. She knew large amount of information about radium, and came up with radiographic units called "Little Curies". These units contained radium emanation, a gas emitting from radium that helped the wounded soldiers feel better.
Marie Curie died in July 1934, after leaving behind a true legacy in the science world. She had aplastic anemia, which most likely came from prolonged and unguarded exposure to radiation. It is truly ironic that she died from doing something she loved so much and that brought so much to the world. Not only did she develop new ideas in the realms of Chemistry and Physics, but she overcame barriers to women that prevented publication of her very important findings. Marie Curie is a true science icon in history, and the many tributes to her (schools and museums in her name just to mention a couple) show how important a person, a female person, she had become and a woman that would never be forgotten in the history of female achievers.

Hacking into a Final Paper (DTC 475) - REVISED

Here is a new topic I was thinking of tackling for my final paper and presentation. Please let me know what you think and how my proposed thesis can be changed for the better.

I want to explain how various communities (both RL and VR), companies (RL and VR) including Microsoft and Google, video games (RPG and otherwise), and the such both reinforce and refute racism and stereotypes in the RL and VR lives of the people of the world. I will examine various regions of the world and how their interactions in communities (RL and VR) reinforce or refute racism and stereotypes. My argument is going to be that the WWW (not real life events) is responsible for most of the racism and stereotypes we see today in the world.
I plan to use many sources. Some of these sources include many websites, Nakamura's text (as it is chalk full of race issues), newsgroups, at least 4 chapters in the CR text, and from my own accounts of racism and stereotypes I have witnessed online, in my real life, in video games, and in other media. I will show, by linking the digital divide, race, internet activism, RL and VR communities, and gender representation, that the creation of and the present and future of the World Wide Web is responsible for most of the racism and stereotypes we see today.
I want to pursue this topic because I believe the WWW can possibly be blamed for much of the racism and stereotypes that still happen all over the world these days. I have experienced a little racism in my life, as well as people in my past sterotyping me as a plain white man that doesn't care about other races. Some of the latter stereotypes involve my past blogs and community involvement on the web.

**** Please tell me if you think I am on the right road to this final project. I am running out of time and my mind is blank other than this. What can I change about this proposed topic to put it more in the realm of what is expected on this final project. I have read and re-read the Final Paper Assignment Sheet many times. I keep getting mind block. Thank you all.

Julie: Am I on a more correct line here with this? What can I change, slightly or largely, to narrow to what you want. Thank you much!