"Marie Curie and her husband, Pierre, received the Nobel Prize in 1903 for their work on radioactivity, which included the discovery of radium and polonium. In 1911, Marie Curie received a second Nobel Prize for her preparation of pure radium, and in 1935, their daughter, Irene, and her husband, Frederick Joliot, received the Nobel Prize for their synthesis of new radioelements. This family's work in radiation was indeed a "grand obsession," spanning the transition of physics from its classical state into the high-tech, nuclear science of the 1940s and 1950s. The author has handled the personalities of the book with tact and fairness--particularly regarding Joliot's role in the French resistance and his post-World War II Communist activities and the Marie Curie-Paul Langevin affair, which caused such a scandal in 1911. But more impressive is Pflaum's ability to clearly and easily explain the wide-ranging technical aspects of the work done by this talented, ever-driven family, all of whom suffered from severe health problems that might have incapacitated the average person. A fascinating biography."- Hilary D. Burton, Lawrence Livermore National Lab., Livermore, Cal.
Condition: Fine in Fine dust jacket. Octavo. Cloth backed boards. 496pp. Black and white photographs.
Author: Rosalynd Pflaum.
Published: 1989.
