The contribution of Maria Sklodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie to Nuclear and Medical Physics. A hundred and ten years after the discovery of radium

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.