Radioactive! presents the story of two women breaking ground in a male-dominated field, scientists still largely unknown despite their crucial contributions to cutting-edge research, in a nonfiction narrative that reads with the suspense of a thriller.

"The most beautiful experiment in the world?" -- Little queen and the other baby -- On the battlefields -- Dr. and Mrs. -- Right on time -- Lost and found -- A lab of her own -- Radium: treatment or toxin? -- Heavy metals -- Fleeing Hitler's Germany -- Eureka! the discovery of fission -- Chain reaction: research on fission goes global -- War -- Overlooked -- Afterward: physicists, pacifists, realists.