Emilie du Chatelet is who I want to be when I grow up.
She was brilliant, I mean scary off the charts brilliant as well as being a bit of a party girl. She was Voltaire's lover and they clashed over they way that energy is measured. Voltaire believed in Newton's method, du Chatelet believed in Leibniz. Eventually, du Chatelet set up an experiment to prove that Leibniz was correct (if you read Candide there are several references to Leibniz as Voltaire played out the disagreement on paper).
She spoke 5 languages. She sang opera. She threw fab theater parties. She studied math and philosophy and wrote books on physics. She took many lovers. She wrote the definitive French translation of Newton. She fenced and danced and gambled.
She died at 42 after giving birth, a birth that she was sure would kill her. If only they had birth control, who knows what else she could have done.
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