Curie argues that scientific research should not be judged only by whether it has an immediate practical use. When radium was discovered, its later medical applications were not known. The research was pursued to understand nature rather than to produce a specific commercial or social benefit.

The quote presents basic research as valuable in itself while also recognising that curiosity-driven discoveries can eventually have important practical consequences. Curie uses radium as an example of knowledge developed without a predetermined application that later became useful in medicine. Her argument therefore links scientific independence with long-term public benefit: researchers cannot always predict which discoveries will become useful, so requiring immediate utility may overlook work whose importance emerges only later. The reference to the “beauty of science” also reflects the intellectual value she places on gaining knowledge and understanding, independently of its eventual applications.