The contribution of Sklodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie to Nuclear and Medic

[Guest guest]

The contribution of Sklodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie to Nuclear and

Medical Physics. A hundred and ten years after the discovery of radium.

Diamantis A, Magiorkinis E, Papadimitriou A, Androutsos G.

Department of Cytopathology, Faculty of Medicine, Athens University, Greece.

Hell J Nucl Med. 2008 Jan-Apr;11(1):33-8

Abstract

This review aims to commemorate the life, and the accomplishments of Pierre and

Marie Curie in Physics and in Medicine. Although they are primarily known for

their discoveries of the elements of radium and polonium, which took place two

years after the discovery of radioactivity by Henry Becquerel, Pierre's

discovery of the piezo-electric phenomenon, his research on crystal symmetry,

magnetism and paramagnetic substances, are equally important. With the discovery

of the two radioactive elements, Pierre and Marie Curie established the new

field of Nuclear Physics. It is not an over-statement to say that their

discovery contributed much to our modern way of life. Marie received the Nobel

Prize twice and later she became the first woman to become member of the French

Academy of Sciences. Today, both Pierre and Marie Curie rest in Panthéon, in

Paris.