The Pierre and Marie Curie Museum is a free historical museum that focuses on radiological research. It was formerly Marie Curie’s laboratory and was where Pierre Curie, Marie Curie, and their daughter Irene discovered artificial radioactivity. They won a Nobel Prize for this work which led to incalculable breakthroughs in the treatment of cancer.

The museum preserves Marie’s laboratory and office. Many of the pieces of equipment used in the lab’s experiments are displayed. In addition to the laboratory, it also contains documents on the Curies and their work.

The museum describes Marie and Pierre’s work in isolating radium, which is one million times more radioactive than Uranium. It discussed how the Curie Lab closely collaborated with the Pasteur Medical Laboratory on identifying opportunists for using radium as a treatment for cancer. While radium had been used for topical treatments for several years, the joint work produced demonstrable progress in using radiation to treat deep tumors, such as in lung cancer.

It also discusses Pierre and Irene’s work in creating Polonium, the first artificial radioactive element.

While the museum is small, it is fascinating and well worth a visit.

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