From today’s NY Times Magazine.

MARIE CURIE
The scientist learns to swim

The pioneer of radiation research and two-time Nobel Prize winner did not learn how to swim until her 50s, when she was taught by her two grown daughters. Her daughter Eve later wrote: “You forgot her gray hair, hidden under the bathing cap, and her wrinkled face in admiring the slim, supple body, the pretty white arms and the lively, charming gestures of a young girl. . . . Without ever openly proposing a race, she put herself in training to break the records of speed and distance held by the university teaching body.”