Personal Exploration and the Unknown Frontier

Portrait of Marie Curie, by R. chido Hanečková

As expeditionary voyages became more common during the early Renaissance period this sense of exploration spread across the land.  It permeated the cultural atmosphere of Europe and led to a fascination with discovery. People were excited - and rightly so - as these explorers would bring back new ideas, new stories, and new possibilities.

But physical exploration isn't the only way to discover new worlds of possibility.  During the Reformation many people found their world expanded with a similar set of new possibilities: religious and ideological freedoms.  This brave new world of ideas and opportunity would be just as inspiring to the reformers as those voyages had been to the watching public.

A friend of mine recently completed a painting of Marie Curie, and with her permission I have included it along with this post.  The painting depicts Curie along with some of her discoveries and experiments.  Since seeing this painting I took the opportunity to familiarize myself with her work, and I can't help but see similarities to this kind of intellectual exploration.  Her research was groundbreaking, and led directly into the new world of atomic physics.  Despite not discovering any new lands or even venturing far beyond Europe, her legacy of discovery is and always will be one of the grandest adventures of all time - the adventure into the ever-expanding unknown.

Yet at the same time I can't help but wonder whether Marie knew at the time how important her work would be.  Explorers who venture into physical unknowns have some idea of what they might find, but those who explore new worlds of idea and reason will very rarely know what to expect.  Shortly after the discovery of radium could she feel in her heart how important that would be to future research?  Or did she simply return home, and carry on with life like any other day?

Similarly we cannot always see where we stand in the context of history, and we often assume our actions will go unnoticed.  None of us know what the future may hold, but we must explore that unknown with as much bravery as any sailor.  Perhaps we will be praised, honored, or even immortalized in the memories of others, or maybe not - either way our experiences will open new worlds to us.