Become a Readings Member to make your shopping experience even easier. Sign in or sign up for free!

Become a Readings Member. Sign in or sign up for free!

Hello Readings Member! Go to the member centre to view your orders, change your details, or view your lists, or sign out.

Hello Readings Member! Go to the member centre or sign out.

Half Lives: The Unlikely History of Radium
Hardback

Half Lives: The Unlikely History of Radium

$49.99
Sign in or become a Readings Member to add this title to your wishlist.

The discovery of radium in the late 19th century prompted a flurry of experiments to scope the limits of its potential applications.

Half Lives tells the fascinating, curious, sometimes macabre story of the element through its ascendance as a desirable item - a present for a queen, a prize in a treasure hunt, a glow-in-the-dark dance costume, a boon to the housewife, and an ingredient in a startling host of consumer products - to its role as a cure-all in everyday 20th-century life.

Finally, it details the gradual downfall and discredit of the radium industry through the eyes of the people who bought, sold and eventually came to fear it.

Half Lives is an enjoyable journey into the odd areas where science and consumerism meet, telling the tale of the entrepreneurs and consumers in radium’s history who have until now been considered quacks, or fools, or both.

Read More
In Shop
Out of stock
Shipping & Delivery

$9.00 standard shipping within Australia
FREE standard shipping within Australia for orders over $100.00
Express & International shipping calculated at checkout

MORE INFO
Format
Hardback
Publisher
Icon Books Ltd
Country
United Kingdom
Date
18 August 2020
Pages
320
ISBN
9781785786075

The discovery of radium in the late 19th century prompted a flurry of experiments to scope the limits of its potential applications.

Half Lives tells the fascinating, curious, sometimes macabre story of the element through its ascendance as a desirable item - a present for a queen, a prize in a treasure hunt, a glow-in-the-dark dance costume, a boon to the housewife, and an ingredient in a startling host of consumer products - to its role as a cure-all in everyday 20th-century life.

Finally, it details the gradual downfall and discredit of the radium industry through the eyes of the people who bought, sold and eventually came to fear it.

Half Lives is an enjoyable journey into the odd areas where science and consumerism meet, telling the tale of the entrepreneurs and consumers in radium’s history who have until now been considered quacks, or fools, or both.

Read More
Format
Hardback
Publisher
Icon Books Ltd
Country
United Kingdom
Date
18 August 2020
Pages
320
ISBN
9781785786075