Radioactive! How Irene Curie and Lise Meitner Revolutionized Science and Changed the World

In 1934, Irène Curie and her husband won the Nobel Prize for their breakthrough discovery of artificial radioactivity. But when Curie was nominated to the French Academy of Sciences, the academy denied her admission and then voted to disqualify all women from membership. Four years later, Curie’s breakthrough led physicist Lise Meitner to a brilliant leap of understanding that unlocked the secret of nuclear fission. Meitner’s unique insight was critical to a revolution in science, yet her achievement was often overlooked or even deliberately erased from the record.

In a nonfiction narrative that reads with the suspense of a thriller, Radioactive! presents the story of two women breaking ground in a male-dominated field, still largely unknown despite their crucial contributions to nuclear science.