Radiation And Modern Life: Fulfilling Marie Curie's Dream [Hardcover]

Alan E. Waltar (Author), Helene Langevin-Joliot (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1591022509 | ISBN-13: 978-1591022503 | Publication Date: November 5, 2004 | Edition: First Edition

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 marvellously enriched our daily lives. 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 archaeology and the arts. 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"If you really want to understand radiation so you can make an intelligent decision about its use, read this book." -- Statesman Journal/Salem, OR, December 19, 2004

From the Inside Flap

At a time when our dependency on foreign oil makes us vulnerable and when we know our fossil fuel resources will soon be used up, we need to learn about radiation more than ever. What is radiation? How does it benefit us in our daily lives? Just how harmful is it?

As we celebrate the one hundredth 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 rely on its beneficial uses every day preserving fresh food, fighting terrorism, stopping crime, detecting and treating cancer, developing an efficient fuel for space travel, and other life-enhancing applications.

In this delightfully accessible overview of radiation's many great benefits and as yet untapped 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 functions. Through the 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 US economy and provides over 4.4 million jobs. 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.

With a compelling introduction by Marie Curie's granddaughter, nuclear physicist Dr. Helene 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 exposes many unfounded fears and provides a wealth of valuable information and insights.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 336 pages
• Publisher: Prometheus Books; First Edition edition (November 5, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591022509
• ISBN-13: 978-1591022503
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.7 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #443,573 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #86 in Books > Professional & Technical > Professional Science > Physics > Nuclear Physics > Atomic & Nuclear Physics

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Overview of Applications of Nuclear Technology, August 17, 2006

By 

G. Poirier (Orleans, ON, Canada) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Radiation And Modern Life: Fulfilling Marie Curie's Dream (Hardcover)

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!

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Pro Radiaton, not Con - One thing at a time!, February 24, 2005

By 

Roger Belling - See all my reviews

This review is from: Radiation And Modern Life: Fulfilling Marie Curie's Dream (Hardcover)

The tenor of the book is sincerely enthusiastic. It reminded me of my youth, when from a yearbook of science and technology I learnt that with nuclear power plants, we could expect electricity for practically no fuel. As an engineering student I learnt, as if that was a law of the solar system, that electricity consumption increases immutably, by 8% per year. Also familiar from my youth, over half a century ago, is the idea of desalination plants to irrigate deserts in proximity of oceans. Waltar reports that desalination requires a lot of energy, but that nuclear power can now provide that, and even produce nuclear-based electricity and drinking water simultaneously in one integrated plant. Other ideas that could not fail to impress me are the elimination of most of the nuclear waste disposal problem by using breeder reactors which recycle waste into new fuels, and the use of antimatter power in space flight, which would be ten billion times more efficient than chemical power like from a Saturn V booster rocket. Fission power as now used in some places on Earth is only ten million times more efficient.
What the cost of all that efficiency might be, Waltar does not aim to explain. Opposition to radiation technologies is mentioned rarely and mostly condescendingly. To convince consumers that radiation in our lives cannot be rolled back, he lumps informational applications of radiation and nuclear power together into the radiation technologies industry, which is bigger than General Motors (in terms of "economic impact", by plain sales it would not be). Jobs created by radiation technologies are shown off, but jobs lost with the industries or occupations displaced are not mentioned. And he points out that radiation is all over the universe. This is a fact - but not a relevant one: We humans are here, with other living beings, only because we have an atmosphere that protects us from the harshness of the rest of the universe. Waltar covers many technical and historical details by referring to other publications, keeping the book reasonably easy to read for ordinary literate people, though rich in scope. Studies cited about the harmlessness and even purported health benefits of low level radiation were typically done in remote countries (or in military secrecy) under difficult record-keeping circumstances, and are viewed sceptically by careful life scientists, in contrast to physicists and engineers like Waltar. In potential public impact, the book is a major challenge.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent background book on radiation and nuclear power, November 12, 2009

By 

Harold K. Forsen (Lake Tahoe, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Radiation And Modern Life: Fulfilling Marie Curie's Dream (Hardcover)

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.