radioactivity

Presents an introduction to the life and work of Marie Curie who researched radium with her husband Pierre.

Presents the life and work of physicist Marie Curie focusing on her childhood in Warsaw, education, relationships, marriage to Pierre Curie, children, Nobel prize, discovery of radium, death, and legacy.

"A riveting narrative of the Atomic Age--from x-rays and Marie Curie to the Nevada Test Site and the 2011 meltdown in Japan--written by the prizewinning and bestselling author of Rocket Men. Radiation is a complex and paradoxical concept: staggering amounts of energy flow from seemingly inert rock and that energy is both useful and dangerous. While nuclear energy affects our everyday lives--from nuclear medicine and food irradiation to microwave technology--its invisible rays trigger biological damage, birth defects, and cellular mayhem. Written with a biographer's passion, Craig Nelson unlocks one of the great mysteries of the universe in a work that is both tragic and triumphant. From the end of the nineteenth century through the use of the atomic bomb in World War II to the twenty-first century's confrontation with the dangers of nuclear power, Nelson illuminates a pageant of fascinating historical figures: Enrico Fermi, Marie and Pierre Curie, Albert Einstein, FDR, Robert Oppenheimer, and Ronald Reagan, among others. He reveals many little-known details, including how Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler transformed America from a country that created light bulbs and telephones into one that split atoms; how the most grotesque weapon ever invented could realize Alfred Nobel's lifelong dream of global peace; how emergency workers and low-level utility employees fought to contain a run-amok nuclear reactor, while wondering if they would live or die. Brilliantly fascinating and remarkably accessible, The Age of Radiance traces mankind's complicated and difficult relationship with the dangerous power it discovered and made part of civilization"--.

Traces the history of mankind's discovery and use of radioactivity, from the end of the nineteenth century with Marie Curie, Enrico Fermi, and Edward Teller, through the atomic age of the twentieth century with World War II and the atom bomb, and up to the twenty-first century and the proliferation of nuclear arms as well as the dangers of nuclear power.

Two-time Nobel Prize winner Marie Curie did more to promote women in science than perhaps any other person. She met Pierre, a brilliant scientist, by chance. After they were married, they worked side by side, leading to the discoveries of polonium and radium as well as many other crucial scientific finds.

Traces the development of the atomic theory and discusses the various uses and misuses of atomic energy.

Explores the various types of atoms, how atoms combine to form elements, and what physicists learn by studying atom behavior.