Half Lives
Half Lives

Author: Lucy Jane Santos

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2021-07-06

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1643137492

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The fascinating, curious, and sometimes macabre history of radium as seen in its uses in everyday life. Of all the radioactive elements discovered at the end of the nineteenth century, it was radium that became the focus of both public fascination and entrepreneurial zeal. Half Lives tells the fascinating, curious, sometimes macabre story of the element through its ascendance as a desirable item – a present for a queen, a prize in a treasure hunt, a glow-in- the-dark dance costume – to its role as a supposed cure-all in everyday twentieth-century life, when medical practitioners and business people (reputable and otherwise) devised ingenious ways of commodifying the new wonder element, and enthusiastic customers welcomed their radioactive wares into their homes. Lucy Jane Santos—herself the proud owner of a formidable collection of radium beauty treatments—delves into the stories of these products and details the gradual downfall and discredit of the radium industry through the eyes of the people who bought, sold and eventually came to fear the once-fetishized substance. Half Lives is a new history of radium as part of a unique examination of the interplay between science and popular culture.

Health Risks of Radon and Other Internally Deposited Alpha-Emitters
Health Risks of Radon and Other Internally Deposited Alpha-Emitters

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1988-02-01

Total Pages: 623

ISBN-13: 0309037891

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book describes hazards from radon progeny and other alpha-emitters that humans may inhale or ingest from their environment. In their analysis, the authors summarize in one document clinical and epidemiological evidence, the results of animal studies, research on alpha-particle damage at the cellular level, metabolic pathways for internal alpha-emitters, dosimetry and microdosimetry of radionuclides deposited in specific tissues, and the chemical toxicity of some low-specific-activity alpha-emitters. Techniques for estimating the risks to humans posed by radon and other internally deposited alpha-emitters are offered, along with a discussion of formulas, models, methods, and the level of uncertainty inherent in the risk estimates.

Radium and the Secret of Life
Radium and the Secret of Life

Author: Luis A. Campos

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2016-07-05

Total Pages: 387

ISBN-13: 022641874X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Long before the hydrogen bomb indelibly associated radioactivity with death, many chemists, physicists, botanists, and geneticists were excited thinking that radium held the key to the secret of life. Luis Campos examines the many and varied connections between early radioactivity research and understandings of vitality, both scientific and popular, in the first half of the twentieth century. As some physicists and chemists early on described the wondrous new element and its radioactive brethren in lifelike terms ( decay, half-life, and frequent reference to the natural selection and evolution of the elements), many biologists of the period eagerly sought to bring radium into the biological fold. They did so with experiments aimed at elucidating some of the most basic phenomena of life, including metabolism and mutation, and often saw in these phenomena properties that in turn reminded them of the new element. These initially provocative links between radium and life proved remarkably productive in experimental terms and ultimately led to key biological insights into the origin of life, the nature of mutation, and the structure of the gene. "Radium and the Secret of Life" traces the half-life of this connection between the living and the radioactive, while also exploring the approach to history that emerges when one follows a trail of associations that, asymptotically, never quite disappears."

Environmental Tracers in Subsurface Hydrology
Environmental Tracers in Subsurface Hydrology

Author: Peter G. Cook

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 545

ISBN-13: 1461545579

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Environmental Tracers in Subsurface Hydrology synthesizes the research of specialists into a comprehensive review of the application of environmental tracers to the study of soil water and groundwater flow. The book includes chapters which cover ionic tracers, noble gases, chlorofluorocarbons, tritium, chlorine-36, oxygen-18, deuterium, and isotopes of carbon, strontium, sulphur and nitrogen. Applications of the tracers include the estimation of vertical and horizontal groundwater velocities, groundwater recharge rates, inter-aquifer leakage and mixing processes, chemical processes and palaeohydrology. Practicing hydrologists, soil physicists and hydrology professors and students will find the book to be a valuable support in their work.

Handbook of Radioactivity Analysis
Handbook of Radioactivity Analysis

Author: Michael F. L'Annunziata

Publisher: Elsevier

Published: 2012-12-02

Total Pages: 810

ISBN-13: 0323137881

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Handbook of Radioactivity Analysis is written by experts in the measurement of radioactivity. The book describes the broad scope of analytical methods available and instructs the reader on how to select the proper technique. It is intended as a practical manual for research which requires the accurate measurement of radioactivity at all levels, from the low levels encountered in the environment to the high levels measured in radioisotope research. This book contains sample preparation procedures, recommendations on steps to follow, necessary calculations, computer controlled analysis, and high sample throughput techniques. Each chapter includes practical techniques for application to nuclear safety, nuclear safeguards, environmental analysis, weapons disarmament, and assays required for research in biomedicine and agriculture. The fundamentals of radioactivity properties, radionuclide decay, and methods of detection are included to provide the basis for a thorough understanding of the analytical procedures described in the book. Therefore, the Handbook can also be used as a teaching text. - Includes sample preparation techniques for matrices such as soil, air, plant, water, animal tissue, and surface swipes - Provides procedures and guidelines for the analysis of commonly encountered na

Half Life
Half Life

Author: Jillian Cantor

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2021-04-07

Total Pages: 416

ISBN-13: 1761100807

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A brilliant sliding-doors reimagining of the passionate life of the first woman to win a Nobel Prize – and the life Marie Curie might have led if she had chosen love over science. Poland, 1891. Marie Curie (then Marya Sklodowska) was engaged to a budding mathematician, Kazimierz Zorawski. But when his mother insisted Marya was not good enough, he broke off the engagement. A heartbroken Marya left Poland for Paris to study chemistry and physics at the Sorbonne. Marie would go on to change the course of science forever and become the first woman to win a Nobel Prize. But what if Marie had made a different choice? What if she had stayed in Poland, married Kazimierz, and never attended the Sorbonne or discovered radium? What if Marie had chosen her first love and a life of domesticity, still ravenous for knowledge in Russian Poland where education for women was restricted, instead of studying science in Paris and meeting Pierre Curie? Seamlessly entwining the lives of Marya and Marie, Half Life is a powerful story of love and friendship, motherhood and sisterhood, fame and anonymity – and a woman destined to change the world.

The Radium Girls
The Radium Girls

Author: Kate Moore

Publisher: Sourcebooks, Inc.

Published: 2017-04-18

Total Pages: 585

ISBN-13: 1492649368

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Amazon Charts Bestseller! For fans of Hidden Figures, comes the incredible true story of the women heroes who were exposed to radium in factories across the U.S. in the early 20th century, and their brave and groundbreaking battle to strengthen workers' rights, even as the fatal poison claimed their own lives... In the dark years of the First World War, radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. From body lotion to tonic water, the popular new element shines bright. Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. The glittering chemical covers their bodies from head to toe; they light up the night like industrious fireflies. With such a coveted job, these "shining girls" are the luckiest alive — until they begin to fall mysteriously ill. And, until they begin to come forward. As the women start to speak out on the corruption, the factories that once offered golden opportunities ignore all claims of the gruesome side effects. And as the fatal poison of the radium takes hold, the brave shining girls find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of America's early 20th century, and in a groundbreaking battle for workers' rights that will echo for centuries to come. A timely story of corporate greed and the brave figures that stood up to fight for their lives, these women and their voices will shine for years to come. Written with a sparkling voice and breakneck pace, The Radium Girls fully illuminates the inspiring young women exposed to the "wonder" substance of radium, and their awe-inspiring strength in the face of almost impossible circumstances. Their courage and tenacity led to life-changing regulations, research into nuclear bombing, and ultimately saved hundreds of thousands of lives...

Evaluation of Guidelines for Exposures to Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials
Evaluation of Guidelines for Exposures to Technologically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials

Author: National Research Council

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 1999-02-25

Total Pages: 293

ISBN-13: 0309062977

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Naturally occurring radionuclides are found throughout the earth's crust, and they form part of the natural background of radiation to which all humans are exposed. Many human activities-such as mining and milling of ores, extraction of petroleum products, use of groundwater for domestic purposes, and living in houses-alter the natural background of radiation either by moving naturally occurring radionuclides from inaccessible locations to locations where humans are present or by concentrating the radionuclides in the exposure environment. Such alterations of the natural environment can increase, sometimes substantially, radiation exposures of the public. Exposures of the public to naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORM) that result from human activities that alter the natural environment can be subjected to regulatory control, at least to some degree. The regulation of public exposures to such technologically enhanced naturally occurring radioactive materials (TENORM) by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and other regulatory and advisory organizations is the subject of this study by the National Research Council's Committee on the Evaluation of EPA Guidelines for Exposures to Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials.

The Soul of Genius
The Soul of Genius

Author: Jeffrey Orens

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2021-07-06

Total Pages: 336

ISBN-13: 1643137158

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

A prismatic look at the meeting of Marie Curie and Albert Einstein and the impact these two pillars of science had on the world of physics, which was in turmoil. In 1911, some of the greatest minds in science convened at the First Solvay Conference in Physics, a meeting like no other. Almost half of the attendees had won or would go on to win the Nobel Prize. Over the course of those few days, these minds began to realize that classical physics was about to give way to quantum theory, a seismic shift in our history and how we understand not just our world, but the universe. At the center of this meeting were Marie Curie and a young Albert Einstein. In the years preceding, Curie had faced the death of her husband and soul mate, Pierre. She was on the cusp of being awarded her second Nobel Prize, but scandal erupted all around her when the French press revealed that she was having an affair with a fellow scientist, Paul Langevin. The subject of vicious misogynist and xenophobic attacks in the French press, Curie found herself in a storm that threatened her scientific legacy. Albert Einstein proved an supporter in her travails. They had an instant connection at Solvay. He was young and already showing flourishes of his enormous genius. Curie had been responsible for one of the greatest discoveries in modern science (radioactivity) but still faced resistance and scorn. Einstein recognized this grave injustice, and their mutual admiration and respect, borne out of this, their first meeting, would go on to serve them in their paths forward to making history. Curie and Einstein come alive as the complex people they were in the pages of The Soul of Genius. Utilizing never before seen correspondance and notes, Jeffrey Orens reveals the human side of these brilliant scientists, one who pushed boundaries and demanded equality in a man’s world, no matter the cost, and the other, who was destined to become synonymous with genius.