Radiation and Modern Life: Fulfilling Marie Curie's Dream

By Alan E. Waltar and Helene Langevin-Joliot

Book Overview

With an introduction by Marie Curie's granddaughter, nuclear physicist Dr. H l ne 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.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1591022509
• ISBN13: 9781591022503
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: Prometheus Books
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.7" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Excellent background book on radiation and nuclear power

Dr Waltar has writen an excellent book on radiation, its sources and uses. It is a very easily understood introduction for anyone interested in the subject and is especially useful in understanding the medical uses of radiation. The chapter on Electricity and nuclear power puts into perspective the costs and issues related to its expanded use. Other uses of radiation in industry are also well described. The book should be read by any person wanting to get a reasonably balance view of this phenomenon in which we live, how it affects our lives and has been put to beneficial use - perhaps aleviating some of the fears that not knowing has promoted.

Very interesting book

Very interesting book for someone who are interested in the history and applications of radioactivity. Very good as element of motivation to study this specific field of science. Good source for preparing a lecture.

Excellent Overview of Applications of Nuclear Technology

I have worked as a physicist in the nuclear field for just over 30 years. Since my work has been of a very narrow specialized nature, I never kept myself fully up-to-date on the incredible diversity of uses for nuclear technology. Consequently, reading this book was indeed an eye-opener for me. The author, a nuclear engineer, discusses a variety of uses of nuclear technology in a wide range of areas, including agriculture, medicine, power generation, industry, transportation, space exploration, public safety, arts and sciences, environmental protection and modern economy. Writing in a very chatty style, the author is quite detailed in most of his descriptions, but he interspersed them with several personal anecdotes, thus adding to one's reading enjoyment. Although an early chapter contains basic information on radiation, i.e., its nature, sources, means of measurement and health risks, a reader who is completely unfamiliar with the subject matter may find a few passages in the book a bit harder to follow. However, these passages are few such that this most informative and well-written book can be enjoyed by a very wide audience. I highly recommend it!

Radiation and Modern Life

This was an excellent book to read for any lay person or student on the many uses of ionizing radiation in modern life. It was amazing to learn of the many applications and benefits we have received as a result of radiation, and Prof. Waltar did an excellent job providing this information in a very readable narrative explaining the benefits as well as short comings of radiation. This book covers the benefits of nuclear medicine, nuclear power, agriculture, transportation, water, waste lean up, the arts, scientific exploration of space and more. Great Job! Fun to read!