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3.57 AVERAGE
3.57 AVERAGE
An interesting angle on the discovery and applications of radium over time. Primarily focused on its perceived healing powers.
Surprisingly minimal mention of “the radium girls”, given it was the only thing *I* really knew of radium going in.
Not sure how heavily I’d vouch for its holistic reliability, but a decent time filler.
Surprisingly minimal mention of “the radium girls”, given it was the only thing *I* really knew of radium going in.
Not sure how heavily I’d vouch for its holistic reliability, but a decent time filler.
informative
fast-paced
I picked up this book thinking it would have some flair to it, almost like the story of The Radium Girls. Instead, I found the subject matter to be very dry and I felt that I was fighting myself to finish the book. If you are interested in reading the rather slow backstory of radium (such as products that were made with it) then you might find this book good.
The amount of times I shook my head in horror while reading this made me wonder what every-day objects we use without questioning their safety.
Definitely a very interesting topic, but sadly, the structure felt really off to me and I wasn't glued to the page. 3 Stars.
Definitely a very interesting topic, but sadly, the structure felt really off to me and I wasn't glued to the page. 3 Stars.
informative
reflective
fast-paced
Unfortunately this didn't go into the products as much as I would have liked and covers similar ground to The Radium Girls which I read recently. The author skips through some details so this book might be a good one to read first if you're interested in the topic.
Radium, in all its many forms and incarnations, can be dangerous AF. We know this now, but “back in the day” it was used in dermatology, homeopathy, cosmetics, wristwatches, architecture, and even high fashion. And its value wasn’t strictly utilitarian; the possession of a few micrograms of radium in a tiny vial was, in fact, high social currency.
Good science writers are able to make complex topics enjoyable and accessible to laypersons (like me) without resorting to the tactics of condescension or misrepresentation. Lucy Jane Santos makes it look easy. She shuttles her readers through the storied history of radium, from its discovery in 1902 to its current use in medical therapies, by artfully braiding physics and chemistry with colorful biographical snippets of the personalities involved. This is a weird, sometimes tragic, always fascinating chronology.
Good science writers are able to make complex topics enjoyable and accessible to laypersons (like me) without resorting to the tactics of condescension or misrepresentation. Lucy Jane Santos makes it look easy. She shuttles her readers through the storied history of radium, from its discovery in 1902 to its current use in medical therapies, by artfully braiding physics and chemistry with colorful biographical snippets of the personalities involved. This is a weird, sometimes tragic, always fascinating chronology.
informative
medium-paced
Here we have a compilation of historical events that are narrated chronologically, since the discovery of x-rays and how this influenced the sensationalism of the discovery of radium later on.
We follow the trajectory that radium had in medicine, beauty and cosmetics until the beginning of the First World War with paints and wristwatches that glow in the dark, culminating in the Second World War with the atomic bomb.
A collection of bad practices with both x-rays and radium which, due to ignorance about the real consequences of these two discoveries, culminated in collateral deaths.
I quiet enjoyed this read!
I quiet enjoyed this read!
I've read Radium Girls sometime before this and they complimented each other wonderfully. Where radium girls focuses on well the radium girls and the factory where they worked this one focused in radium as a whole. It was interesting to listen how high valued radium was when it came to fame and how people wanted in in anything and everything and how horrendous conscience it had on society and people it hurt. Never got boring or too info dumpy
It’s a library book and I need to get back to reading books I own 🥲
slow-paced