The Second Coming of Ultrasound
Before Pierre Curie met the chemist Marie Sklodowska; before they married and she took his name; before he abandoned his physics work and moved into her laboratory on Rue Lhomond where they would discover the radioactive elements polonium and radium, Curie discovered something called piezoelectricity. Some materials, he found\u2014like quartz and certain kinds of salts and ceramics\u2014build up an electric charge when you squeeze them. Sure, it\u2019s no nuclear power.