Radiation And Modern Life: Fulfilling Marie Curie's Dream

by Alan E. Waltar, Helene Langevin-Joliot

With an introduction by Marie Curie's granddaughter, nuclear physicist Dr. Hélène Langevin-Joliot, who reveals a host of interesting and hitherto unknown stories about her famous family (winners of five Nobel Prizes), this unique popular science book dispels many unfounded fears and provides a wealth of valuable information.As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of Marie Curie's first Nobel Prize, awarded to her and her husband, Pierre, for their monumental discovery of radioactivity, it is an ideal time to reflect on the countless ways that their astounding work has so marvelously enriched our daily lives. Despite public fears of the potentially harmful effects of radiation from nuclear waste, we in fact rely on its many beneficial uses everyday for fresh food preservation, fighting terrorism, stopping crime, cancer detection and treatment, spacecraft power, and numerous other life-enhancing applications.In this lucid overview of radiation's many great benefits and ongoing potential, Dr. Alan E. Waltar, past president of the American Nuclear Society, explains how this important energy source has been harnessed to serve a plethora of humanitarian tasks. Through artful use of vivid anecdotes that give vibrancy to technical explanations, Waltar provides numerous examples of radiation's many uses in agriculture, medicine, electricity generation, modern industry, transportation, public safety, environmental protection, space exploration, and even archeology and the arts. Estimating the total financial contribution of all these varied uses, Waltar comes to the startling revelation that radiation technology now contributes more than $420 billion to the U.S. economy and over 4.4 million jobs. In only one century, Marie Curie's discoveries have provided an infrastructure larger than the entire U.S. airline industry.In the future Dr. Waltar foresees continuous improvement in many areas of science, industry, and medicine through tapping the incredible potential of Marie Curie's initial insights. At a time when our dependency on foreign oil makes us vulnerable and when we know that our fossil fuel resources will soon be used up, we need to understand radiation more than ever. This superb book will provide that necessary insight.

Genres: Science

336 pages, Hardcover

First published November 5, 2004

Reviews

[Kristine · Rating 3 out of 5]

As a radiation physicist, I am always on the lookout for books written for a general audience about radiation, mostly so I can recommend them to colleagues, friends, and family. I had such hopes for this book. While the breadth of topics covered is quite good, there’s some iffy and watered down technical content and declarations that were uncomfortable for me. For example, the italicized statement “[L]ess than 1 percent of all cancer cases are related to ionizing radiation in any way.” This is simply not knowable given our current understanding of cancer induction and cause. There’s also aggressive use of personal anecdotes, which I found distracting to the overall message.

[Duvv! · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved the diagrams! Full of information. I loved hearing about brachytherapy from the perspective of someone who underwent it. I also loved the introduction. Overall, good read. It was a bit lengthy and some parts felt unnecessary, but the wealth of information overpowers those!

[Rodolfo Suarez · Rating 3 out of 5]

First I will admit that I didn't read cover to cover because only parts of it were required reading for a course. The introduction is very boring, with every chapter the author tries to give this nostalgic type of feel to it even thought it felt unnecessary. The book is really good about describing radiation and radioactivity and their principles, and also gives great simple diagrams.

[Leanna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really interesting for a school book.