Curies

As you may notice, the Curies were a very successful 'Nobel Prize family'.

Nobel Laureates Facts 2010

"One of the things that links the Curies' scientific work to their passionate love affair is their curiosity --- that ability to make a leap of imagination and to look into the unknown," Redniss has said.

Jesse Kornbluth: 'Radioactive' Is A National Book Award Finalist. It's So Thrilling That It Literally Glows In The Dark. Jesse Kornbluth 2011

How about those historical figures who are trotted out as examples, the Marie Curies and Florence Nightingales?

Role models: someone to look up to Kira Cochrane 2010

"One of the things that links the Curies' scientific work to their passionate love affair is their curiosity --- that ability to make a leap of imagination and to look into the unknown," Redniss has said.

Jesse Kornbluth: The Love Story of Marie & Pierre Curie Is Now a Beautiful Book (With A Spooky, Challenging Ending) Jesse Kornbluth 2011

The Joliot-Curies were the parents of a boy, Pierre, and a girl, Helene, both of whom became scientists — thus continuing a famous scientific dynasty.

Joliot-Curie, Irène 2009

And so it makes a kind of sense that the Curies would carry radium around, unaware that it causes radioactive poisoning and cancer.

Jesse Kornbluth: 'Radioactive' Is A National Book Award Finalist. It's So Thrilling That It Literally Glows In The Dark. Jesse Kornbluth 2011

And that's just the start of the charm and beauty and high intelligence of an oversized book that mixes text and art, documents and narrative, to tell a story that starts with the story of the Curies and then radiates outward.

Jesse Kornbluth: 'Radioactive' Is A National Book Award Finalist. It's So Thrilling That It Literally Glows In The Dark. Jesse Kornbluth 2011

The Joliot-Curies were the parents of a boy, Pierre, and a girl, Helene, both of whom became scientists — thus continuing a famous scientific dynasty.

Joliot, Frédéric 2009

The Curies discovered radioactivity and, in 1903, won the Nobel Prize for Physics.

Jesse Kornbluth: 'Radioactive' Is A National Book Award Finalist. It's So Thrilling That It Literally Glows In The Dark. Jesse Kornbluth 2011

The Joliot-Curies won the Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1935 for their discovery of artificial radiation by bombardment of alpha particles (helium nuclei, He2+) on various light elements.

Joliot-Curie, Irène 2009