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What were the Curies' contributions to medicine?

French chemists and physicists (people who study the relationship between matter and energy) and husband-wife team Pierre (1859–1906) and Marie Curie (1867–1934) discovered radium, the first radioactive element, which proved to effective in treating cancer. After French physicist Henri Becquerel (1852–1908) discovered that radium could burn skin, Pierre Curie and French physician Henri Danlus determined that radium would kill both skin cells and cancer cells. Yet while the skin cells would grow back, the cancer cells did not. This discovery led to the creation of radiation therapy for cancer.

After Pierre was killed in a street accident in 1906, Marie continued their work, which included teaching at the University of Paris. In 1912 she became research director of the newly built Radium Institute in Paris, a position she held until her death. During...

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1. Origins
   1. How did early humans cure illness and disease?
   2. Who was the first doctor in history?
   3. What is the Hippocratic Oath?
   4. What are the four humors?
   5. When did biological warfare originate?
   6. Were there hospitals before the Middle Ages?
   7. When was the first North American hospital built?
   8. What advances were made in medicine during the Renaissance?
   9. How old is the concept of public health?
   10. What is Gray's Anatomy?
2. Modern Medicine
   1. When did modern medicine begin?
   2. Who invented vaccination?
   3. When did modern surgery begin?
   4. When was anesthesia first used?
   5. What surgical advances were introduced in the late twentieth century?
   6. Who introduced the use of antiseptics in hospitals?
   7. What are Louis Pasteur's contributions to the study of disease?
   8. When were antibiotics invented?
   9. Why are new antibiotics constantly being developed?
   10. Why is Florence Nightingale famous?
   11. When was the International Red Cross founded?
   12. Who discovered the X ray?
   13. Who was Clara Barton?
   14. What were the Curies' contributions to medicine?
   15. How did Jonas Salk and Albert B. Sabin save lives?
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   26. What are CT and MRI scans?
3. Psychology
   1. Why are Pavlov's dogs famous?
   2. What is behaviorism?
   3. What were Sigmund Freud's contributions to the study of human psychology?
   4. What does the term "Jungian" mean?
   5. Who was Dorothea Dix
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1. Middle Ages