@ColinTheMathmo In 1950, the ballet/pantomime "Isotopia" was performed. It was a creation by Muriel Howarth, apparently a radioactivity enthusiast. It featured people portraying protons, neutrons, electrons and a Geiger counter. Apparently, this is what Time magazine wrote about it:
“13 bosomy A.E. Associates in flowing evening gowns gyrated gracefully about a stage in earnest imitation of atomic forces at work. An ample electron in black lace wound her way around two matrons labeled ‘proton’ and ‘neutron’ while an elderly ginger-haired Geiger counter clicked out their radioactive effect on a pretty girl named Agriculture. At a climactic moment, a Mrs. Monica Davial raced across the stage in spirited representation of a rat eating radioactive cheese.”
"Look what these wonderful ideas did to our house... Asbestos worked the miracle. J-M Asbestos Roofing Shingles and J-M Asbestos Siding Shingles. Charming as weathered wood; fire-, weather- and wear-proof."
So, with all that's being revealed about what #ExxonKnew in the 1950's, I thought it might be relevant to post what #WalterRussell, artist, visionary and scientist in the 1950's posted about #AtomicEnergy and #ClimateChange...
LOSS OF OXYGEN GLOBALLY
"Walter Russell, a visionary artist and scientist, predicted in his book Atomic Suicide? published in 1957 that due to man-made radioactivity we would experience a loss of oxygen in the air that we breathe. In a similar way to the predictions of Andrei Sakharov in the 1950's, Walter Russell's foresight is now coming true. Our current oxygen resources are low. The percentage of oxygen in the air is down to about 19 percent. (BioTech News 1997) The expected amount is 21 percent oxygen. Some experts say that we may have originally evolved in an atmosphere of 38 percent oxygen. But now, due to the loss of forests and ocean plankton, our two sources of oxygen production, measurements of oxygen as low as 12 percent and 15 percent have been made in heavily industrialized areas. This oxygen-depleted condition is a contributing cause of the generalized lack of well-being that many are experiencing. And it does not look good for the future. We need oxygen to live!
"Trees and green plants provide about half, and plankton provide the other half of our oxygen. Phytoplankton, which are the base of the marine food chain, is declining. Various studies confirm this: plankton in parts of the Antarctic Ocean is declining up to 12 percent. (S. Weiler. Testimony to Senate Commerce Committee, November 15, 1991)
Trees absorb radioactive carbon-14 in place of stable forms of carbon and in this way they are gradually killed. The book, The Petkau Effect, by Ralph Graeub tells how radioactivity has harmed trees and forests: "It is assumed that the decisive physiological damage resulting in current forest death must have begun during the 1950's. This is depicted in a reduction in density and width of tree rings, and in reduced growth, which is true in the Northern Hemisphere and in the Himalayas.... Neither aging, location, nor climate can be considered as the possible sole cause of damage.... The growth ring of a tree shows exactly what effects the tree has experienced, both in terms of time and seriousness.... During the 1950's and 1960's, there must have been a global wave of air pollution which caused the initial damage."
"The author speculates that it could not be just the usual chemicals which are so damaging the trees. And he explains that these trees are mainly within the 30th to 60th parallels of northern latitude.
"This zone contains the most nuclear power plants -- over 300 -- and almost all nuclear reprocessing centers. Also, the vast majority of nuclear weapons tests occurred in this area."
"The #PetkauEffect, by #RalphGraeub tells how 👉#radioactivity has harmed trees and forests: "It is assumed that the decisive physiological damage resulting in current forest death must have begun during the 1950's.👈 This is depicted in a reduction in density and width of tree rings, and in reduced growth, which is true in the Northern Hemisphere and in the Himalayas.... Neither aging,...
The Curies informed the l'Académie des Sciences #OTD in 1898 that they had demonstrated strong grounds for having come upon an additional very active substance that behaved chemically almost like pure barium. They suggested the name of radium for the new element. via @NobelFoundation
The mineral pitchblende, rich in uranium, gave off more radioactivity than could be accounted for by the uranium in it (and there was no thorium). via @aip
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Marie Curie figured the pitchblende must contain another element, fiercely radioactive, and never seen before. The promise of a strange new element was so exciting that Pierre put aside his work on crystals to help speed up the discovery. They worked as a team, each responsible for a specific task. via @aip
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December 15, 1852, birthday of French physicist Antoine H. Becquerel. His discovery that certain ores emit a unknown radiation lead to the discovery of #radioactivity 🪨☢️
Marie Curie’s Research Papers Are Still Radioactive a Century Later
"If you want to look at her manuscripts, you have to sign a liability waiver at France’s Bibliotheque Nationale, and then you can access the notes sealed in a lead-lined box."
Happy birthday to Marie Skłodowska Curie, who was born on this day in 1867!
She is best known as the discoverer of the radioactive elements polonium and radium and as the 1st person to win 2 Nobel prizes. For scientists & the public, her radium was a key to a basic change in our understanding of matter and energy. Her work not only influenced the development of fundamental science but also ushered in a new era in medical research & treatment. via @aip
Madame Curie died in Poland from aplastic anemia believed to have been contracted from her long-term exposure to radiation, causing damage to her bone marrow.
The damaging effects of ionising radiation were not known at the time of her work. She was also exposed to X-rays from unshielded equipment while serving as a radiologist in field hospitals during the First World War. Sixty years after her death, the remains of wife & husband were transferred to the Paris Panthéon.
Albert Einstein and Marie Curie conversing in Geneva, July 1924.
Marie met Einstein personally in 1911, during the first Solvay Conference in Brussels. Einstein confirmed this fact in one of his letters:
"I am impelled to tell you how much I have come to admire your intellect, your drive, and your honesty, and that I consider myself lucky to have made your personal acquaintance in Brussels(…)"
Credits: AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives. Held by Niels Bohr Library & Archives
When a particle decays and spits off some alpha radiation why doesnt it take with it some of the electrons from its parent particle? I would expect the electrons to "stick" to the helium nucleus and travel with it.
I am guessing it is a matter of moment. The alpha particle flys off at such speed the resting moment of the electrons may make it so they cant follow it... but considering that electrons arent at "rest" and that they have very very little mass I question myself on this answer.
#Europe’s #Boars Still Hold #Radioactivity. What Surprised Scientists Is Why.
Some wild #boar hunted in #German forests have radiation levels that exceed the limit deemed safe for human consumption. New research suggests that it’s not just because of #Chernobyl.Why is the radiation in the wild boar population relatively high, when most other wildlife are uncontaminated, many generations after the accident? (Spoiler: It’s because they eat deer truffles.)
Np Paywall: https://archive.ph/36xk9
You read that correctly. A team of scientists just tested wild boar meat from Southern Germany and found that radioactivity in the boars stemmed from nuclear weapons testing, rather than the Chernobyl power plant disaster of 1986....
#AI#Radioactivity#STS#GenerativeAI: "Historians of science and technology have seen this all before. The details were different, but the hype wasn't. If the past is any guide to the future, the push to create AGI by building ever-larger "language models" — the systems that power ChatGPT and other chatbots — will end up a giant nothingburger despite the grand proclamations all over the media.
Furthermore, there is another important parallel between radioactivity in the early 20th century and the current race to create AGI. This was pointed out to me by Beth Singler, an anthropologist who studies the links between AI and religion at the University of Zurich. She notes that just as the dangers of the everyday uses of radioactivity were ignored, the harmful everyday uses of AI are being ignored in public discourse in favor of the potential AI apocalypse.
Not long after Marie Curie wowed audiences at a major scientific conference in 1900 with vials of radium "so active that they glowed with a pearly light," a physician who studied radioactivity with Marie Curie, Sabin Arnold von Sochocky, realized that adding radium to paint caused the paint to glow in the dark. He co-founded a company that began to manufacture this paint, which was used to illuminate aircraft instruments, compasses and watches. It proved especially useful during World War I, when soldiers began to fasten their pocket watches to their wrists and needed a way to see the time in the dark trenches to synchronize their movements."
Good news for all #Safecast#bGeigieNano users - the RadiationToolbox for #QGIS developed by @opengeolabs was published in official QGIS plugin repository so you can install it from QGIS using "Manage and install plugins". Enjoy.
In July 1898, Curie and her husband published a joint paper announcing the existence of an element they named "polonium", in honour of her native Poland. On 26 December 1898, the Curies announced the existence of a second element, which they named "radium". In the course of their research, they also coined the word "radioactivity". via @Wikipedia
Happy birthday to #physicist Harriet Brooks (1876 - 1933) who discovered atomic recoil, Radon & recognized radioactive elements could undergo chains of transmutations into a series of new elements. #nuclear#physics
She was Rutherford’s 1st grad student at McGill. After publishing her results in 1899 she completed her MSc in 1901 on "Damping of Electrical Oscillations," before embarking on #radioactivity research.
Nuclear weapons partly responsible for radioactive wild boars (gizmodo.com)
You read that correctly. A team of scientists just tested wild boar meat from Southern Germany and found that radioactivity in the boars stemmed from nuclear weapons testing, rather than the Chernobyl power plant disaster of 1986....