One day an American journalist visited a remote cottage in Brittany where Marie and Pierre Curie were said to be vacationing.

"Are you the housekeeper?" he asked of the dowdy-looking woman sitting outside the door. "Yes." "Is your mistress inside?" "No." "Will she be back soon?" "I don't think so."

"Can you tell me something confidential about your mistress?" he asked. "Madame Curie has only one message that she likes to be given to reporters," the housekeeper replied. "That is: be less curious about people and more curious about ideas."

[The "housekeeper" of course was Marie Curie.]

[Curiosity killed Curie; she died from the effects of the radiation to which she had been exposed.]