“Marie Curie, a woman on the front”

At the outbreak of World War 1, Marie Curie was in her late forties.

A renowned scientist, with a Nobel prize in Physics and then in Chemistry to her name, she had struggled for many years to come to terms with the sudden death of her husband Pierre Curie. Yet the urgency of war time and the needs she considered vital drove her out of her laboratory and to the front.

Determined to establish the techniques of the all-new science of radiology, she and her 17-year-old daughter Irène travelled the front lines to convince patrons, surgeons and doctors of the importance of its use. She and her partner at the Institut du Radium, Doctor Claudius Regaud, tirelessly explained bacteriology, imposed the use of antiseptics, coordinated the various doctors and conceived new treatments.

Together, they would help invent modern medicine.