Pierre Curie was already a famous scientist before he married Marie
Sklodowska in 1895. This famous couple did not only find true
love, they also discovered radium and polonium. For their
groundbreaking research in radioactivity, the couple were awarded the
1903 Nobel Prize in physics. It was Marie Curie who coined the
term "radioactivity", and in her honor, the 1910 Radiology Congress
chose the curie as the basic unit of radioactivity. Pierre died
from being run over by a horse drawn wagon, but Marie continued their
research, and was eventually awarded a second Nobel Prize, the 1911
prize for Chemistry. She died in 1934, suffering from pernicious
anemia which had undoubtedly been the result of years of radiation
exposure.
