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Neurosurg Focus 39 (1):E7, 2015

Pierre Curie: the anonymous neurosurgical contributor Karen Man, BAS,1 Victor M. Sabourin, MD,1 Chirag D. Gandhi, MD,1–3 Peter W. Carmel, MD,1 and Charles J. Prestigiacomo, MD1–3 Departments of 1Neurological Surgery, 2Radiology, 3Neurology and Neuroscience, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, Newark, New Jersey

Pierre Curie, best known as a Nobel Laureate in Physics for his co-contributions to the field of radioactivity alongside research partner and wife Marie Curie, died suddenly in 1906 from a street accident in Paris. Tragically, his skull was crushed under the wheel of a horse-drawn carriage. This article attempts to honor the life and achievements of Pierre Curie, whose trailblazing work in radioactivity and piezoelectricity set into motion a wide range of technological developments that have culminated in the advent of numerous techniques used in neurological surgery today. These innovations include brachytherapy, Gamma Knife radiosurgery, focused ultrasound, and haptic feedback in robotic surgery. http://thejns.org/doi/abs/10.3171/2015.4.FOCUS15102

Key Words  Pierre Curie; piezoelectricity; radium brachytherapy; Gamma Knife; focused ultrasound; haptic feedback

P

Curie (Fig. 1) was a man of singular ability in the sciences. Although he is not much celebrated in scientific history, this may be due in part to the fact that he was a modest man in life, with a general distaste for glory or unnecessary publicity.14 However, to understand the trajectory of his work, it is necessary to understand the life that he led, his early work in physics, and the passion for scientific investigation that enabled his achievements. His life’s work has so broadly impacted medicine and the sciences that it may be said that those who employ the fruits of his labor in modern times owe it to him to remember his legacy. ierre

Early Life and Career of Pierre Curie

Pierre Curie was born on May 15, 1859, in Paris, France.6,14 Pierre’s paternal grandfather and father were both physicians.6,7,14 His father had also worked as a natural science researcher at the Museum of Natural History in Paris.6,7 Pierre was homeschooled during his childhood, having been deemed by his parents too sensitive and easily distracted for the rigidly structured French education system.6,7,14,26 Instead, he was taught by his parents and older

brother Jacques.6 Through the liberal attitude and support of his family, Pierre earned a Bachelor of Science degree (equivalent to a General Certificate of Education) at the age of sixteen and was able to matriculate into the prestigious Sorbonne, also known as the University of Paris, for his higher education.6,7,14,26 Two years later, in 1877, Pierre graduated with a licentiate in the Physical Sciences, the equivalent of a modern bachelor’s degree in physics.6,7,26 Afterward, he began to work at the Sorbonne as an assistant in a physics laboratory in an effort to help support his family financially.6,7,26 In 1880 (Fig. 2), he published his first paper in the physical sciences with Professor Paul Desains, the director of the lab where he worked, describing a novel method for measuring infrared waves using thermoelectricity and a metallic grid.6,25,26 Pierre’s older brother Jacques was also working at the Sorbonne as a lab assistant in the mineralogy department.6,7,26 Throughout childhood and adulthood, Pierre and Jacques were close friends and shared similar interests.6,14 While together at the Sorbonne, the brothers investigated and first described the phenomenon of piezoelectricity— the tendency of some crystals to produce electricity when subjected to mechanical stress.6,12,14,47 For the sake of their

submitted  February 28, 2015.  accepted  April 3, 2015. include when citing  DOI: 10.3171/2015.4.FOCUS15102. Disclosure  The authors report no conflict of interest concerning the materials or methods used in this study or the findings specified in this paper. ©AANS, 2015

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Fig. 1. Pierre Curie in the amphitheater of the Faculty of Sciences of Paris, 1904. Courtesy of the Curie Museum, Collection of the Association of Curie Joliot-Curie. (http://www.calames.abes.fr/pub/curie.aspx#d etails?id=Calames-2014730177403311003).

experiments, Pierre developed a tool known as the Curie electrometer (Fig. 3), used to measure small amounts of electricity emitted by piezoelectric materials, such as quartz crystals.6,7,26,47 This device would also later be used by Marie Curie in her investigation on the emissions of uranium salts and various other compounds, which would eventually lead to her pioneering work in radioactivity.6,7 The brothers went on to publish several papers on the topic of piezoelectricity.11–13,26 In 1883, at the age of 24, Pierre left the Sorbonne to teach as a chief laboratory assistant at the School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry of the City of Paris, where he conducted research on crystal symmetry and magnetism.6,7,14,26,47 In 1895, he obtained his doctoral degree in physics, for which he published his most influential individual work: his doctoral thesis on paramagnetic materials.6,19,26 In his thesis, he established Curie’s law, which states that the magnetic susceptibility of a paramagnetic substance is inversely proportional to the absolute temperature.6,18,19,26 He also described the Curie temperature, the point at which ferromagnetic materials lose their magnetic characteristics and become paramagnetic.6,18,19,26,47 In 1895, after successfully defending his doctoral thesis, Pierre became a professor at the School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry.6,14,26,47 One of his pupils was Paul Langevin, who was later instrumental in the development of sonar technology, an application of piezoelectricity that used sound waves to 2

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Fig. 2. Pierre Curie, circa 1880. Courtesy of the Curie Museum, Collection of the Association of Curie Joliot-Curie. (http://www.calames.abes. fr/pub/curie.aspx#details?id=Calames-201473017740330823).

detect underwater vessels.6,7,26,47,48,62 This sonar device generated echoes that reflected off of underwater objects, applying pressure to piezoelectric transducers upon their return, which converted the signal to electricity and allowed for the calculation of the range, speed, and position of underwater objects.6,7,26,47,48,62

The Power Couple of Physics: Pierre and Marie

Pierre Curie and Marie Skłodowska (Fig. 4) were initially introduced to each other by a mutual friend in 1894, when the Polish-born Marie had just earned her licentiate in physics at the Sorbonne.6,7,10,14 Pierre and Marie shared an immediate personal rapport, which, after several months of friendship, resulted in marriage in July of 1895 (Fig. 5).6,7,10,14,26 By 1897, Pierre was engrossed in research on the properties of crystals, and Marie began to pursue a doctoral degree in physics with encouragement from her husband.6,7,10,14 Prior to the start of Marie’s doctoral research, in 1896, Henri Becquerel had described the spontaneous emission of rays from uranium salts and thus uncovered the phenomenon of radioactivity.6,7,10,14,26 Marie became intrigued by the nascent literature and sought to examine a wide variety of materials for similar energetic properties.6,7,10,14,26 Pierre used his various connections with a chemist acquaintance, the School of Physics, and the Museum of Natural History

Pierre Curie: anonymous neurosurgical contributor

Fig. 4. Pierre and Marie Curie in the Curie garden at Sceaux, 1895. Photo taken by Albert Harlingue. Courtesy of the Curie Museum, Collection of the Association of Curie Joliot-Curie. (http://www.calames.abes. fr/pub/curie.aspx#details?id=Calames-201473017740331883).

Fig. 3. The Piezoelectric Quartz Electrometer patented by Pierre Curie. Courtesy of the Curie Museum, Collection of the Association of Curie Joliot-Curie. (http://www.calames.abes.fr/pub/curie.aspx#details?id=Cal ames-2014730177403311044).

in Paris to acquire a range of compound samples for Marie to analyze.6 Part of her analytical methodology involved using the Curie electrometer, her husband’s invention, to detect minute emissions from each substance.6,7,26 In 1898, interested in the results of his wife’s work, Pierre ceased his own studies on crystals to collaborate with Marie and recruit assistants to help with the purification of chemical compounds.6,10,14 Together in their lab (Fig. 6), Pierre and Marie discovered that pitchblende, then regarded as a waste byproduct of the uranium extraction process, had quadruple the radiation intensity of metallic uranium.6,14,26 The Curies and their assistants continued their purifications in search of the substance in pitchblende that was responsible for such radiation.6,14,26 By July of 1898, the Curies had written a communication to the French Academy of Sciences, presented on their behalf by Academy member Henri Becquerel, claiming that a new substance was found to have greater radiation properties than uranium. If it proved to be a novel element, they proposed to name the substance “polonium,” after Marie’s homeland.6,7,10,14,17,26 Later, after further attempts to purify substances within pitchblende, the Curies

prepared a paper on the discovery of a second radioactive element, which they named “radium.”6,7,10,14,16,26 In December of 1898, Henri Becquerel presented their paper to the French Academy of Sciences, but the society informed the Curies that their paper would not be accepted unless they could confirm the singularity of their element through mass spectrometry.6,7,14,26 However, the microscopic amounts of radium the Curies had been able to isolate were not adequate for spectroscopic analysis.6,10,14 They would need to process enormous quantities of pitchblende (500 tons, by the end of their experiments); the venture would be massively expensive and the purification would ultimately take years.6,10,14 Admirably, the Curies (Fig. 7) were not daunted. Pierre wrote letters to numerous institutions and organizations, within and outside of France, in search of donations or low-cost quantities of pitchblende.6,14 The Curies were finally able to proceed when an unknown benefactor donated money to allow them to acquire several tons of pitchblende from Bohemia.6,7,10 After years of intense labor in the purification process, the Curies were able to obtain 0.1 g of radium chloride.6,7,10,26 The sample was sent to Eugène Demarçay, a well-known mass spectrometry specialist in France at the time, to determine the atomic mass of radium and confirm its unique elemental identity.6,7,10,26 In 1902, the atomic mass of radium was determined to be approximately 225 Da, which is exceptionally close to the now accepted value of 226 Da.6,7,10,14,15,26 Neurosurg Focus  Volume 39 • July 2015

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man researchers Walkhoff and Giesel, who had published papers on the effects of x-rays on human skin.7,26,33,63 Pierre had replicated Giesel’s experiments with radium by placing the material on his arm for ten hours, observing an array of consequences: erythema, ulceration, and pigmentation.1,7,10,26 He published his findings with Henri Becquerel, and his paper piqued the interest of physicians Danlos and Bloch, who experimented with the use of radium in treating lupus erythematosus and other skin disorders.7,9,22,26 Afterward, numerous publications began to attempt to characterize the effects of radioactive materials on biological tissue.2,3,5,28,52 For their contributions to the field of radioactivity, Henri Becquerel, Pierre Curie, and Marie Curie were awarded the 1903 Nobel Prize in Physics. In June of 1905, Pierre delivered his Nobel lecture regarding his and Marie’s work in radioactivity, describing the great latent potential in their discoveries, for healing as well as for harm:20 Radium rays have been used in the treatment of certain diseases (lupus, cancer, nervous diseases). In certain cases their action may become dangerous. If one leaves a wooden or cardboard box containing a small glass ampulla with several centigrams of a radium salt in one’s pocket for a few hours, one will feel absolutely nothing. But 15 days afterwards a redness will appear on the epidermis, and then a sore which will be very difficult to heal. A more prolonged action could lead to paralysis and death.

Fig. 5. Wedding photo of Pierre and Marie Curie, 1895. Courtesy of the Curie Museum, Collection of the Association of Curie JoliotCurie. (http://www.calames.abes.fr/pub/curie.aspx#details?id=Calam es-201473017740331882).

While Marie was working to purify radium from pitchblende, Pierre investigated the effects of radium on biological tissue and the possible applications of radioactive material in medicine.7,14,26 The first reports on the effects of radioactivity on biological tissue were credited to Ger-

Untimely Death

On April 19, 1906, Pierre Curie was crossing the rue Dauphine in Paris, having recently departed from a meeting of the Association of Professors of the Faculties of the Sciences in Paris.6,14 It had been raining throughout the day, and as Pierre was crossing the street, he stepped into the pathway of a horse-drawn carriage and fell.6,7,14,26,43,49 At first it seemed as if Pierre would escape harm after the horse and front wheels of the carriage passed him by.6 However, his skull was crushed under a rear wagon wheel,

Fig. 6. Left: Inside the section of the Pierre and Marie Curie laboratory known as “The Hangar” in l’Ecole de physique et chimie industrielles (School of Physics and Industrial Chemistry) (EMPCI), circa 1899 (http://www.calames.abes.fr/pub/curie.aspx#details ?id=Calames-201473017740331908).  Right: Laboratory of Pierre and Marie Curie, circa 1898. (http://www.calames.abes.fr/pub/ curie.aspx#details?id=Calames-201473017740331906). Both images courtesy of the Curie Museum, Collection of the Institute of Radium. 4

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Pierre Curie: anonymous neurosurgical contributor

Fig. 7. Pierre and Marie Curie in “The Hangar” section of their laboratory where they made the discovery of radium, circa 1898. Courtesy of the Curie Museum, Collection of the Association of Curie JoliotCurie. (http://www.calames.abes.fr/pub/curie.aspx#details?id=Calam es-201473017740331893).

and it is believed that he died instantaneously.6,7,14,26,43,49 His body was carried to the local police station, where he was examined by a doctor named M. Drouet, who noted that the skull had been shattered into 16 fragments, although the face was left intact.9 The unfortunate news of Pierre’s death was delivered to Marie Curie later that evening; she refused to have an autopsy performed on her husband’s body and requested that it be brought back to their home (Fig. 8).9 The news of Pierre’s death was a shock to Marie, the rest of the Curie family, the international scientific community, and France.6,7,14 Marie was devastated by the loss

and entered a period of grieving. She received a great number of letters from friends, acquaintances, the French government, and even strangers, all of whom expressed their condolences at Pierre’s untimely death.6,14 The government of France offered her a widow’s pension, but she declined, intent on supporting her and Pierre’s two daughters alone.6,14 Meanwhile, the Sorbonne offered Marie her late husband’s position as a physics lecturer, which she accepted with conflicting emotions.6,14,50 She would be able to continue his research as well as her own, and the position provided her a salary with which she could support her family independently, but she ruminated over the painful irony in a diary entry addressed to Pierre: “You would have been happy to see me as a professor at the Sorbonne, and I myself would have so willingly done it for you. But to do it in your place, my Pierre, could one dream of a thing more cruel....”6,50 On May 13, 1906, Marie Curie was appointed the chief of research in the Faculty of Science at the Sorbonne and became the university’s first female professor.6,10,14,51 Although Pierre’s death was a great loss to his family and the scientific community, it also served as the catalyst for Marie Curie to step out from the shadow of her husband’s achievements and to pioneer further research into the field of radioactivity for the next three decades of her career.10

The Memory of Pierre Curie

Despite Pierre’s considerable achievements, in his personal journal entries he often expressed self-doubt about his intellectual capacity, worried over his ability to hold his job as a lab assistant early in his career, and described himself as a slow thinker.6,14 He was known by friends and acquaintances to be a humble man who shunned glory and decorations.14 Marie was far kinder in her descriptions of his abilities, explaining his self-proclaimed “slow mind” as one that could be easily distracted and required total

Fig. 8. The funeral of Pierre Curie. Funeral procession to the Curie house, 1906. Courtesy of the Curie Museum, Collection of the Association of Curie Joliot-Curie. (http://www.calames.abes.fr/pub/curie.aspx#details?id=Calames-2014730177403311048). Neurosurg Focus  Volume 39 • July 2015

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focus on a particular subject, but could yield extraordinarily precise and profound solutions.14 His personality was quiet, gentle, socially withdrawn, and stubborn.14 He was deeply dedicated to a life of scientific pursuit, yet he was loving to his small circle of close friends and family.14 Marie’s overall impression of her late husband’s character was as follows:14 ...his acts were those of a truly good man... full of understanding and indulgence. He was always ready to aid, as far as his means allowed, any person in a difficult situation... His tenderness was the most exquisite of blessings, sure and helpful, full of gentleness and solicitude. It was good to be surrounded by this tenderness; it was cruel to lose it after having lived in an atmosphere completely permeated by it.

Contributions of Radioactivity to Medicine

Pierre and Marie Curie never copyrighted or patented the process for extracting radium.6,10,14 They believed in the greater good that could be achieved by allowing the free scientific advancement and growth of a radium industry in France, and eventually the rest of the world.6,10,14,20 The Curies were also generous in donating samples from the sparse amounts of radium they managed to collect, enabling medical researchers to investigate clinical applications, as in the treatment of lupus erythematosus and cancer described in Pierre’s Nobel lecture.1,6,20,22 In the decades following the discovery of radium, there came to be a great interest in radium implantation for the treatment of various diseases, initially referred to as “radium-therapy” and then “curie-therapy” after Pierre’s death.7 Within the field of neurological surgery, in 1912, Oskar Hirsch published the first known attempt at implanting radium intracranially, to ablate a portion of the pituitary gland in a patient with acromegaly.34,38,55,57 In 1920, Charles Frazier published a brief case series describing the implantation of radium into various tumors, including gliomas, but his treatments proved ineffective for patients with brain tumors.31,34,55,57 Then in 1930, Harvey Cushing employed an intracranial radium implant known as the “radium bomb” for the treatment of gliomas.21,55,57 This therapeutic implant, consisting of 12.5 mg radium needles encased in rubber sponges and rubber tissue, exposed the tumor to radiation for several days.21,55,57 The idea for using these radium implantations arose through discussions with Gösta Forssell, a Swedish professor with expertise in radium therapy for gynecological cancers.37,55,57 Cushing’s radium bombs were employed in at least 10 known cases, from 1930 to 1931; use of these bombs was indicated in cases of especially aggressive neurological dysfunction or recurring malignant tumors that were insensitive to alternate treatment.55,57 However, patient outcomes were ultimately poor, despite short-term remission, and Cushing eventually abandoned the technique before his retirement in 1932.57 Although these pioneering radium implantations appeared to be futile, the lack of success was likely due to imprecise dosimetry and a dearth of knowledge regarding radiobiology at the time.35 Nevertheless, these first attempts served as essential predecessors to modern brachytherapy and brought attention to the prospect of using radiation therapy in the treatment of brain tumors. Radium itself is no longer commonly implanted 6

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for glioma treatment, but use of other radioisotopes such as iodine-125 may be indicated in contemporary cases of recurrent malignant gliomas.35,54,56,59 In addition to physicians, the Curies donated samples of radium to their colleagues in physics. In 1900, Paul Villard received such a donation from the Curies for his investigations on radioactive emissions from radium, in which he discovered the phenomenon of gamma radiation.32,60,61 Gamma rays are now known to consist of electromagnetic photons (rather than atomic particles, as in alpha and beta emissions) and can achieve powerful penetration of biological tissue, being composed of wavelengths even smaller than x-rays.32 In 1908, Dominici tubes were invented to hold implanted radium salts and block alpha and beta radiation from exiting their metal encasing, allowing only gamma rays to penetrate nearby tissue.29,57 This was the beginning of the utilization of gamma rays in cancer treatment. A more contemporary application known as the Gamma Knife, a method of stereotactic radiosurgery, was developed in 1958 by Swedish physician Lars Leksell and physicists Larsson and Lidén for use in functional neurosurgery.40–42 Today, Gamma Knife radiosurgery is still a widely used procedure for the treatment of spinal and intracranial tumors.27,36,58

Contributions of Piezoelectricity to Medicine

Although the discovery of radium set Pierre Curie on the path to becoming a Nobel Laureate, one of his other major scientific contributions—far less celebrated in scientific history, yet with equally great impact on modern technology, medicine, and the world—was the discovery of piezoelectricity. The first practical application of Pierre’s work was developed by one of his own students from the School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry, Paul Langevin, who took part in creating the first functional “hydrophone,” a precursor to sonar technology.48,62 The hydrophone featured a piezoelectric quartz transducer and established the pulse-echo principle of sonar devices that would be used in World War II submarines.48,62 The development of sonar technology, in turn, drove research that would become critical to the development of ultrasound technology. The use of ultrasound in medicine began with brothers Karl Theodore and Friederich Dussik, who conducted the first rudimentary ultrasound scans of the human brain in 1937.8,46,48 The brothers are also credited with first proposing the possibility of the detection of brain tumors through ultrasound, citing the differences in wave transmission through tumor versus normal brain tissue.48 However, further development of ultrasound technology was dependent on the coevolution of electronics, specifically the development of more sensitive transducers to allow for higher spatial resolution in images.8 Such transducers were developed in the 1970s and 1980s, paving the way for ultrasound to become a standard diagnostic tool in medicine.8,46 Within neurological surgery, ultrasound applications include penetration of the blood-brain barrier to introduce molecular therapeutic agents into the brain, sonothrombolysis to treat ischemic stroke, and noninvasive treatment of chronic neuropathic pain.4,8,30,39,44 Aside from ultrasound applications, piezoelectric sen-

Pierre Curie: anonymous neurosurgical contributor

sors and actuators have had far-reaching impact in the fields of electronics and engineering, facilitating the development of cutting edge medical technologies that require high precision forces and pressures. In laparoscopic surgery, for example, piezoelectric actuators can be used to generate relatively high power densities, delivering high torque at low speed in a surgical instrument, and piezoelectric polymers can be used for haptic feedback during minimally invasive surgery.23,53 Piezoelectric actuators and sensors are also used to achieve haptic feedback during robotic surgery for neurological cases.24,45

Conclusions

There is an unfortunate irony in the fact that Pierre Curie’s life was shortened prematurely by an accident of fatal neurological trauma, considering that his life’s work has since paved the way for the advancement of many technologies used in neurological surgery today. Pierre and his brother Jacques’ discovery of piezoelectricity has facilitated the development of ultrasound technology and haptic feedback mechanisms used in robotic surgery, to name only two major applications in medicine and electronics. Pierre and Marie Curie’s discovery of radium and research into radioactivity opened the door to applications of radium in medicine that were the predecessors to modern brachytherapy. Pierre’s willingness to donate radium samples to fellow researchers also allowed for the discovery of gamma rays, which have now been harnessed in the widely used technique of Gamma Knife radiosurgery. Although Pierre’s death was an untimely one that deprived the world of a great mind and an altruistic spirit, the legacy of Pierre Curie lives on in the manifold advances in science that have stemmed from the work he so passionately pursued in life.

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank Ms. Anais Massiot, archivist of the Curie Museum in Paris, France, for her generous support of this project. She is an expert on the lives of Pierre and Marie Curie and has spent considerable time and effort in assisting the authors to choose appropriate photographs and in locating information related to Pierre Curie’s death.

References

  1. Becquerel H, Curie P: Action physiologique des rayons du radium. C R Acad Sci Paris 132:1289–1291, 1901   2. Bergonié J, Tribondeau L: Premières expériences sur le rat blanc. C R Soc Biol 57:592–595, 1904   3. Bohn G: Influence des rayons du radium sur les animaux en voie de croissance. C R Acad Sci Paris 136:1012–1013, 1903   4. Bor-Seng-Shu E, de Carvalho Nogueira R, Figueiredo EG, Evaristo EF, Conforto AB, Teixeira MJ: Sonothrombolysis for acute ischemic stroke: a systematic review of randomized controlled trials. Neurosurg Focus 32(1):E5, 2012   5. Bouchard C, Baltharzard V, Curie P: Action physique de l’émanation du radium. C R Acad Sci Paris 138:1385–1389, 1904   6. Brian D: The Curies: A Biography of the Most Controversial Family in Science. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2005   7. Chavaudra J: Pierre and Marie Curie-Sklodowska. Med Phys 22:1877–1887, 1995   8. Christian E, Yu C, Apuzzo MLJ: Focused ultrasound: relevant history and prospects for the addition of mechanical

energy to the neurosurgical armamentarium. World Neurosurg 82:354–365, 2014   9. Curie E: Madame Curie. London: William Heinemann Ltd, 1938 10. Curie E: Marie and Pierre Curie and the discovery of radium. Br J Radiol 23:409–412, 1950 11. Curie J, Curie P: Contractions et dilatations produites par des tensions dans les cristaux hémièdres à faces inclinées. C R Acad Sci Gen 93:1137–1140, 1880 12. Curie J, Curie P: Développement, par pression, de l’électricité polaire dans les cristaux hémièdres à faces inclinées. C R Acad Sci Gen 91:294–295, 1880 13. Curie J, Curie P: Sur l’électricité polaire dans les cristaux hémièdres à faces inclinées. C R Acad Sci Gen 91:383–386, 1880 14. Curie M: Pierre Curie. New York: The Macmillian Co, 1923 15. Curie M: Recherches sur les substances radioactives. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1904 16. Curie P, Curie M, Bémont G: Sur une nouvelle substance fortement radioactive contenue dans la pechblende. C R Acad Sci Paris 127:1215–1217, 1898 17. Curie P, Curie M: Sur une substance nouvelle radioactive contenue dans la pechblende. C R Acad Sci Paris 127:175– 178, 1898 18. Curie P: Lois expérimentales du magnétisme. Propriétés magnétiques des corps a diverses temperatures. Ann Chim Phys 5:289–405, 1895 19. Curie P: Propriétés magnétiques des corps à diverses températures. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1895 20. Curie P: Radioactive substances, especially radium. Nobel Lecture. (http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/ laureates/1903/pierre-curie-lecture.html) [Accessed April 17, 2015] 21. Cushing H: Intracranial Tumors. Notes Upon a Series of Two Thousand Verified Cases with Surgical-Mortality Percentages Pertaining Thereto. Springfield, IL: Charles C Thomas, 1932 22. Danlos H, Bloch P: Note sur le traitement du lupus érythèmateux pardes applications de radium. Ann Dermatol Syphil 2:986–988, 1901 23. Dargahi J, Parameswaran M, Payandeh S: A micromachined piezoelectric tactile sensor for an endoscopic grasper—theory, fabrication and experiments. J Microelectromech Syst 9:329–335, 2000 24. De Lorenzo D, De Momi E, Dyagilev I, Manganelli R, Formaglio A, Prattichizzo D, et al: Force feedback in a piezoelectric linear actuator for neurosurgery. Int J Med Robot 7:268–275, 2011 25. Desains P, Curie P: Recherches sur la détermination des longueurs d’onde des rayons calorifiques à basse température. C R Acad Sci Paris 90:1506–1510, 1880 26. Diamantis A, Magiorkinis E, Papadimitriou A, Androutsos G: The contribution of Maria Sklodowska-Curie and Pierre Curie to nuclear and medical physics. A hundred and ten years after the discovery of radium. Hell J Nucl Med 11:33– 38, 2008 27. Ding D, Yen CP, Starke RM, Lee CC, Sheehan JP: Unyielding progress: recent advances in the treatment of central nervous system neoplasms with radiosurgery and radiation therapy. J Neurooncol 119:513–529, 2014 28. Dominci H, Barcat J: Modifications histologiques déterminées par le rayonnement du radium. Arc d’Elec Méd 15:835–836, 1907 29. Dutreix J, Tubiana M, Pierquin B: The hazy dawn of brachytherapy. Radiother Oncol 49:223–232, 1998 30. Etame AB, Diaz RJ, Smith CA, Mainprize TG, Hynynen K, Rutka JT: Focused ultrasound disruption of the blood-brain barrier: a new frontier for therapeutic delivery in molecular neurooncology. Neurosurg Focus 32(1):E3, 2012 Neurosurg Focus  Volume 39 • July 2015

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Author Contributions

Conception and design: Man, Sabourin. Acquisition of data: Man, Sabourin. Analysis and interpretation of data: Man. Drafting the article: Man. Critically revising the article: Prestigiacomo, Sabourin, Gandhi. Administrative/technical/material support: Prestigiacomo, Sabourin, Carmel.

Correspondence

Charles J. Prestigiacomo, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, 90 Bergen St., DOC Ste. 8100, Newark, NJ 07101-1709. email: [email protected].

Pierre Curie: the anonymous neurosurgical contributor.

Pierre Curie, best known as a Nobel Laureate in Physics for his co-contributions to the field of radioactivity alongside research partner and wife Mar...
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