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

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309037891
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 623

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Book Description
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.

Author: Lauren Redniss
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780062226051
Category : Chemists
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Presents the professional and private lives of Marie and Pierre Curie, examining their personal struggles, the advancements they made in the world of science, and the issue of radiation in the modern world.

Author: Naomi Pasachoff
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198025254
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 113

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Book Description
Marie Curie discovered radium and went on to lead the scientific community in studying the theory behind and the uses of radioactivity. She left a vast legacy to future scientists through her research, her teaching, and her contributions to the welfare of humankind. She was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes, yet upon her death in 1934, Albert Einstein was moved to say, "Marie Curie is, of all celebrated beings, the only one whom fame has not corrupted." She was a physicist, a wife and mother, and a groundbreaking professional woman. This biography is an inspirational and exciting story of scientific discovery and personal commitment. Oxford Portraits in Science is an on-going series of scientific biographies for young adults. Written by top scholars and writers, each biography examines the personality of its subject as well as the thought process leading to his or her discoveries. These illustrated biographies combine accessible technical information with compelling personal stories to portray the scientists whose work has shaped our understanding of the natural world.

Author: Marie Curie
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Radioactive substances
Languages : en
Pages : 106

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Book Description

Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309062977
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 293

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Book Description
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.

Author: Luis A. Campos
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022641874X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 387

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Book Description
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."

Author: Lucy Jane Santos
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1643137492
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
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.

Author: Marie Sklodowska Curie
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 172

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Book Description
Marie Sklodowska Curie was a Polish and naturalized-French scientist who remains today one of the most extraordinary figures in modern physics and chemistry. She was the first person to win two Nobel Prizes (in Physics and in Chemistry) and the first woman scientist to be awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. After being denied a position at the University of Kraków, due to the common sexism in the academia of the time, she returned to Paris to work together with Pierre Curie. At the end of the 19th century, Henri Becquerel had discovered the new phenomenon of radio-activity (a term later coined by Marie Sklodowska Curie) in uranium salts. Sklodowska Curie built upon this study and made two fundamental discoveries in the field. First, she discovered that radio-activity is a property of certain elements (like uranium and thorium) of the periodic table, and it is not due to the chemical properties of compounds. Second, she discovered two new radio-active elements, polonium and radium. This book presents her address at Vassar College from 1921 and her Ph.D. thesis, defended in 1903 at the Faculty of Science of the Université de la Sorbonne in Paris. Her thesis, described by the examining committee as the best contribution to science ever presented, made Marie Sklodowska Curie the first woman to obtain a doctoral degree in the history of France. Newly translated from the French second edition, it represents a true masterpiece of science and describes in detail her efforts to understand the origin of radioactivity. To appreciate the beauty of her work one has to keep in mind that, at the time, the structure of the atom was largely unknown (the first attempt was made by J.J. Thomson in 1904). Due to high exposure to radiation, she died from aplastic anemia at the age of 66.

Author: Robert Peter Gale
Publisher: Knopf
ISBN: 0307959694
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
A forefront radiation expert who consulted during the Chernobyl and Fukushima crises and the author of The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat identify the radioactive fundamentals of the planet while correcting myths to reveal the role of radiation in everyday life and what should and should not raise concern.

Author: Winifred Conkling
Publisher: Algonquin Books
ISBN: 1616206411
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
The fascinating, little-known story of how two brilliant female physicists’ groundbreaking discoveries led to the creation of the atomic bomb. In 1934, Irène Curie, working with her husband and fellow scientist, Frederic Joliot, made a discovery that would change the world: artificial radioactivity. This breakthrough allowed scientists to modify elements and create new ones by altering the structure of atoms. Curie shared a Nobel Prize with her husband for their work. But when she was nominated to the French Academy of Sciences, the academy denied her admission and voted to disqualify all women from membership. Four years later, Curie’s breakthrough led physicist Lise Meitner to a brilliant leap of understanding that unlocked the secret of nuclear fission. Meitner’s unique insight was critical to the revolution in science that led to nuclear energy and the race to build the atom bomb, yet her achievement was left unrecognized by the Nobel committee in favor of that of her male colleague. Radioactive! presents the story of two women breaking ground in a male-dominated field, scientists still largely unknown despite their crucial contributions to cutting-edge research, in a nonfiction narrative that reads with the suspense of a thriller. Photographs and sidebars illuminate and clarify the science in the book.