I hope the affair was with a man at least...not that there's
anything wrong with sisterhood.
Worse! It was with a physicist. Imagine being attracted to physicists. No wonder they accused her of being a cold fish (when they were not saying she was a shameless hussy). See:
http://www.aip.org/history/curie/scandal2.htm
And the person who advised her not to come to the ceremony was Svante Arrhenius, the great electrochemist who spent years being shunned and denigrated for the cardinal sins of brilliance & originality. His granddaughter Karen Caldwell played a walk-on role in cold fusion, described by Beaudette on p. 147. As told by Fleischmann:
"After the press conference, Dr. Caldwell came up to us and said, 'well when my grandfather proposed electrolytic disassociation, he was dismissed from the University. At least that won't happen to you.' I said to her, 'but you are entirely mistaken. We shall be dismissed as well.'"
And so they were. Dismissed, despised and driven into exile. Remember kiddies: that is what you get for being right!
- Jed
