Lucy Jane Santos presents the surprising history of radium in everyday life.
Lucy Jane Santos is an expert in the history of twentieth-century leisure, health, and beauty with a particular interest - some might say obsession - in the cultural history of radioactivity. She is now the Executive Secretary of the British Society for the History of Science and the Administrator for the Historical Writers' Association. In the past, she has also worked as Secretary of the Authors' Club and the Director of the Crime Writers' Association. Lucy has worked for the Gourmet Society, where she was editor, and at The International Wine and Food Society. This is her first book.
With verve and vivacity, Lucy Jane Santos conducts her readers on a
unique tour of the twentieth century's most significant scientific
discovery. Before the R-word threatened destruction, it offered
hope for the future -- teeth would glow white, cocktails would
shine in the dark and cancer would be vanquished. This evocative
account puts people and their emotions centre-stage of science's
past.
*Dr Patricia Fara*
Half Lives shines a light on the shocking history of the world's
toxic love affair with a deadly substance, radium. Unnerving,
fascinating, informative and truly frightening.
*Hallie Rubenhold, author of The Five*
In Half Lives, Lucy Santos transports us back to a time when
consumers wondered whether mixing radium into chicken feed might
result in eggs that could hard-boil themselves; when diners
cheerfully drank radioactive cocktails that glowed in the dark; and
when people used toothpaste containing lethal thorium oxide in the
pursuit of healthy gums. Santos unpicks fact from fiction and
exhibits a masterful grasp of a complex area of science history
that is so often mistold. Half Lives is a delightfully disturbing
book that reminds us all of the age-old Latin maxim, 'caveat
emptor.'
*Dr Lindsey Fitzharris, bestselling author of The Butchering
Art*
There was a time when radioactivity seemed to promise the future.
It was the stuff that twentieth-century dreams were made of, before
those dreams turned sour. This marvellous book explores the ways
radioactivity stood for a better future, worked its way into
money-making schemes of all kinds and offered hope to saints and
charlatans. By doing all that - and doing it so well - it also
offers a cautionary tale about the dangers of putting too much
faith in simple technological solutions to all our problems.
*Iwan Rhys Morus*
A little gem of a book
*Medical Journalists' Association*
Fascinating and well told
*Irish Times*
Truly mind-boggling ... I became so engrossed I read most of it in
one sitting
*Chemistry World*
An engaging and definitive history
*Popular Science*
With wit and empathy, Santos tells the story of the entrepreneurs
and consumers in radium's history who have until now been
considered quacks, or fools, or both
*Inside History*
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