Sur une substance nouvelle radio-active contenue dans la pechblende
1898
Pierre Curie(1859-1906),
Marie Sklodowska Curie(1867-1934)
 Marie Curie left her native Poland to study at the Sorbonne in Paris where she took her master’s degree in physics and mathematics. Inspired by the research of her teacher Becquerel, Madame Curie and her husband Pierre Curie made extensive studies on uranium and thorium and observed that these substances exhibited much greater radioactivity than the amount that had been theretofore anticipated. Their investigations led to the discovery of a new element polonium. This paper was the first to announce their discovery and includes the Curies first use of the word “radio-active”.