One of those facts that make you think...for a bit.

[Hans Tucker (Hans)]

One of those typical office e-mails was circulating around today. Usually it would contain a joke or something to make you smile but this one in particular contain Scientific Facts and one of the so called facts pertained to the Journals of Marie Curie and went along the lines:

Marie Curies research notebooks were exposed to so much radiation that they still can't safely be handled without protection and will remain this way until the year 3511.

So a bit of Googling was in order.

Everyone that knows a bit about science knows the Curies, including her daughter, died from illness as the result of radiation poisoning. The disturbing fact here was that she, and her husband, were exposed to so much radiation that their research journals are hazardous material.

[doppler (Rick)]

You just flashed my memory back to the early 70's when I was in highschool and everyone was worried about the French atomic tests on our doorstep in the South Pacific. Radioactive material can be dangerous stuff.

[mental4astro (Alexander)]

Originally Posted by doppler

You just flashed my memory back to the early 70's when I was in highschool and everyone was worried about the French atomic tests on our doorstep in the South Pacific. Radioactive material can be dangerous stuff.

Got one better...

When I was in high school, the science dept still was allowed to keep some radioactive isotope samples for science experiments that were carried out with a Geiger Counter. There were some four sample in specially made metal casings, about the size of a 10c each, and kept in a lead box under lock and key.

Wouldn't you know it, one of the samples went missing the day we were using them in year 11. The science teacher was pissed to say the least, especially when the culprit wouldn't own up. So, he used the Geiger Counter to find the sample, sweeping it over each lad in turn. Didn't take long for the Counter to start going crazy, chirping away like mad when it was swept over the groin of one of my class mates,

The class was silent. The teacher didn't say anything. The doppy lad just pulled the sample out of his front pant pocket and handed it back. The only thing the teacher said was something along the lines of "mate, you've done the punishment to yourself." End of the matter.

Oh, one of the experiments we did was to calculate the background radiation, taking a whole lot of readings with a Geiger Counter over one minute each, then averaging them out. 22 clicks per min was the average for us in 1988. The teacher told us that the background radiation around 1950 was just 15 clicks per min. How you like them apples????

[telemarker (Keith)]

Just to pick nits, wouldn't the radioactivity of her notebooks be from contamination and not exposure?

[Lee]

How about Fermi's research assistants, who had to sit on top of Chicago Pile 1 with a beryllium liquid (from memory), ready to pour into the worlds first nuclear chain reaction, should it get too active! Most of these guys died young as a result....

[Lee]

Originally Posted by telemarker

Just to pick nits, wouldn't the radioactivity of her notebooks be from contamination and not exposure?

Yes, it would be.

[allan gould]

What about the guy that pulled apart two blocks of uranium with his bare hands as they were too close to each other and were about to go critical and set off a chain reaction. He died about a week later from intense radiation burns.

[Lee]

Louis Slotin was his name....
Another fatality occurred in similar circumstances from the same plutonium sphere - "the demon core"....