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From the back cover-"Frédéric Joliot-Curie was one of the most brilliant scientists and one of the most controversial political figures of this century. With his wife, Irene Curie, the daughter of the famed Mme Marie Curie, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1935 for the discovery and his later work in the fission of uranium atoms gave pre-war France an immense lead in nuclear research. After the war, he was appointed to the post of High Commissioner for Atomic Energy. But his blunt and outspoken opposition to the manufacture and use of atomic weaponry caused him to be dismissed.His wife, to whom he was devoted, died of leukemia in 1956, and for the next two years he bore the certain knowledge that he too was doomed due to years spent handling radioactive material. ... Read more