Zamieszczone przez Leon Cohen
Langevin and Curie had a love affair about five years after Pierre Curie died, but Langevin was married and his wife wasn’t exactly thrilled*. It made the newspapers big time, and a scandal ensued. At times, the public protests almost turned violent. The reason behind the scandal and the mobs was that a foreigner was corrupting a French scientist!
After all, Marie was born in Poland! The cries were to run her out of town, that is, out of France! Langevin stuck by her in every way and even had a duel with a reporter.
Of course! At one point, there was a mob in front of her house, and the great mathematician Borel, who at that time was an administrator at the Ecole Normale Supérieure, took her and her two daughters into his house for safety. He was immediately threatened by a prominent minister to give her up to the mobs. To his honor, he resisted.