Lauren Redniss has created a fascinating and deeply moving visual biography that walks students through the story of Marie Curie's life, which was marked by both extraordinary scientific discover and dramatic personal trauma. From her romantic partnership with Pierre, through his tragic decline from radium poisoning and death in a traffic accident, to the scandalous affair with another fellow scientist that almost jeopardized her second Nobel Prize, it also casts an eye forward to survey the changes wrought by Curie's discovery of radioactivity—illuminating the path from the Curie laboratory past the bright red mushroom clouds in the Nevada desert through Three Mile Island and the advance in radiation therapy and nuclear technology today. Freshman Common Read: University of Cincinnati, Texas A&M Commerce | Radioactive by Lauren Redniss, Paperback | Indigo Chapters