Title Life atomic : a history of radioisotopes in science and medicine / Angela N.H. Creager

Published Chicago : University of Chicago Press, 2013

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Description 1 online resource (xvi, 489 pages) Series Synthesis Synthesis Contents Chapter 1. Tracers; Chapter 2. Cyclotrons; Chapter 3. Reactors; Chapter 4. Embargo; Chapter 5. Dividends; Chapter 6. Sales; Chapter 7. Pathways; Chapter 8. Guinea Pigs; Chapter 9. Beams and Emanations; Chapter 10. Ecosystems; Chapter 11. Half-Lives Summary After World War II, the US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) began mass-producing radioisotopes, sending out nearly 64,000 shipments of radioactive materials to scientists and physicians by 1955. Even as the atomic bomb became the focus of Cold War anxiety, radioisotopes represented the government's efforts to harness the power of the atom for peace--advancing medicine, domestic energy, and foreign relations. In Life Atomic, Angela N.H. Creager tells the story of how these radioisotopes, which were simultaneously scientific tools and political icons, transformed biomedicine and ecology. Government-produced radioisotopes provided physicians with new tools for diagnosis and therapy, specifically cancer therapy, and enabled biologists to trace molecular transformations. Yet the government's attempt to present radioisotopes as marvelous dividends of the atomic age was undercut in the 1950s by the fallout debates, as scientists and citizens recognized the hazards of low-level radiation. Creager reveals that growing consciousness of the danger of radioactivity did not reduce the demand for radioisotopes at hospitals and laboratories, but it did change their popular representation from a therapeutic agent to an environmental poison. She then demonstrates how, by the late twentieth century, public fear of radioactivity overshadowed any appreciation of the positive consequences of the AEC's provision of radioisotopes for research and medicine Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (pages 409-460) and index Notes Print version record Subject Radioisotopes in research -- History Radioisotopes in medical diagnosis -- History Nuclear medicine -- History Radioisotopes -- Industrial applications -- History Radioisotopes -- history Radioisotopes -- therapeutic use Nuclear Medicine -- history SCIENCE / General. Nuclear medicine. Radioisotopes in medical diagnosis. Radioisotopes in research. Radioisotopes -- Industrial applications. Radionuklid Medizin Naturwissenschaften SUBJECT United States https://id.nlm.nih.gov/mesh/D014481 Genre/Form History. Form Electronic book ISBN 022601794X 9780226017945

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