Atomic Mythologies

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[atomic-mythologies]

Me and my ray cat

A little illustration on the recently mentioned topic of ray cats.

I'm not much of a singer, but it's easier to open up with the right audience

Lyrics are from the “10,000-Year Earworm to Discourage Settlement Near Nuclear Waste Repositories (Don't Change Color, Kitty)”

Signed, trying to improve my singing

– The Atomic Bard

[atomic-mythologies]

Can cats save us from radiation poisoning?

Unusual question, I know. And yet, such bizarre concept was proposed by philosopher Françoise Bastide and semiotician Paolo Fabbri in a survey conducted by the German journal “Zeitschrift für Semiotik” (“Journal of Semiotics”) in 1984. The journal asked academics about the main topic of nuclear semiotics, which is how to communicate a very specific message 10,000 years into the future.

Bastide and Fabbri came up with an idea of a “living radiation detector” – a creature, coexisting with humans on a daily basis, that upon coming in contact with high enough radiation would change its appearance. The pair came to the conclusion that cats would neatly fit the criteria for a species living alongside humans and being very likely to do so even in a distant future. They cited the Egyptian worship of cats and suggested that such reverence could easily be resurrected by culture and folklore.

The proposed altered version of our feline companions was dubbed “ray cats”, and while authors of the concept didn’t specify how they would change their appearance when detecting radiation, many artistic renditions suggest color change or glowing similar to bioluminescence.

For the demonstration purposes I have made a drawing of my own lazy and only-trusty-when-he-wants-to-be companion. Meet Bourgeois the Cat, or in this case, Bourgeois the Ray Cat.

When everything is fine and dandy he is like a regular cat (aside from the weird, slightly concerned expression he has, but that’s a norm for him).

However, if the would find himself to close to faulty nuclear repository…

Alas! Truly a radiant specimen!

Of course, even if we would actually turn future cats into living Geiger counters, people thousands years later would still need to be informed about this unusual ability and the meaning behind it. Thus, the knowledge about ray cats should be spread through culture and folklore, or perhaps even worship.

And it seems that the concept of ray cats doesn’t even need to be realized in actual animals to make its mark in the broader consciousness. In 2014 Emperor X released a song called “10,000-Year Earworm to Discourage Settlement Near Nuclear Waste Repositories (Don't Change Color, Kitty)”. As the (lengthy) title suggests, its catchy melody and easy lyrics resembling a campfire song are intended to carry the message far and wide.

A year later, “Don’t Change Color Kitty” was featured in a documentary short “The Ray Cat Solution”. Paolo Fabbri also makes the appearance there and admits he was positively astounded with the amount of traction his idea has gotten over the years, despite it being initially treated as a bit of a joke.

And there IS something really remarkable about this seemingly weird idea becoming an iconic symbol of the almost impossible task to communicate with our descendants thousands of years later.

Maybe the real ray cats were the cute nuclear semiotics icon we have found along the way…

Signed, relaxing at home with Bourgeois the Ray Cat,

– The Atomic Bard

[atomic-mythologies]

LO AND BEHOLD!!!

I have finally finished what was my initial plan for the Atomic Jacket

Patches are sewn on and everything that was painted has a special coat added.

Now for a big reveal!

Phosphorescence!!!

And the blue one at that. It mimics Cherenkov radiation. It's not very strong, unless left for a while under the sunlight, but it can do for now.

Currently, I am thinking about what I could add to the Jacket. Perhaps I will paint arm bones with bleach along the sleeves to mimic radiographs. More patches are also in consideration.

Signed, enjoying the start of the spring,

– The Atomic Bard

[atomic-mythologies]

How much gray will kill you – radiation poisoning

Today’s record is a rather morbid one. There will be no brilliant discoveries and no passionate scientists pursuing knowledge. Instead, we will delve into the realms of sickness and death, both very cruel and painful at that.

The purpose of my work is to educate about radioactivity and nuclear energy. These are potent and wondrous forces, but the danger within them must not be underestimated. Talking about the possible consequences of negligence, ignorance or sometimes outright cruelty inflicted upon others using radiation feels crucial to me.

Ergo, I shall explain what happens when the amount of radiation coming into contact with human body exceeds what it can naturally handle, causing RADIATION POISONING.

For those faint of heart: I am not going to include any pictures. I will, however, describe the medical symptoms in some detail, including gastrointestinal and neurovascular problems, decay of tissues, as well as cancers. Consider yourselves warned.

As I have briefly mentioned, radiation poisoning generally occurs when the body is exposed to heightened amount of ionizing radiation, which is the type of radiation that is capable of knocking electrons out of atoms and molecules, giving them charge which in turn alters their structure and behavior.

The International System of Units (SI) uses the gray (Gy) as a standardized measurement of the ionizing radiation dose. It was named after British physicist Louis Harold Gray, who contributed to establishing the gram roentgen – the original unit of absorbed radiation.

One Gray (Gy) is defined as the absorption of one joule of radiation energy per kilogram of matter.

Sola dosis facit venenum - The dose makes the poison.

There are two main types of radiation syndrome: acute and chronic. The latter one, chronic radiation syndrome (CRS) has already been mentioned on this blog, as the disease plagued Curies family, who spent years handling radioactive materials without sufficient protection.

Thus, CRS is caused by exposure to relatively low levels of radiation lasting months or even years. Doses are so miniscule that the body can repair itself for the most part, but the damage is slowly building up, nevertheless. Lower threshold for CRS is accumulative 0.7 Gy with dose rates surpassing 0.4 Gy per year. Severity of the syndrome and its latency period is proportional to accumulated Gray. Thankfully, milder variants are fully treatable once the exposure ceases.

"Symptoms of chronic radiation syndrome would include, at an early stage, impaired sense of touch and smell and disturbances of the vegetative functions. At a later stage, muscle and skin atrophy and eye cataract follow, with possible fibrous formations on the skin, in case of previous radiation burns. Solid cancer or leukemia due to genetic damage may appear at any time."

Earliest symptoms also include hypotension and generally exclude cellular damage.

This (apart from the dosage, of course) distinguishes CRS for ARS.

The first symptoms of acute radiation syndrome are usually felt by the patient with doses of around 1 Gy (although blood tests can reveal damage with doses starting at 0.25 Gy). This is when blood cells are destroyed faster than bone marrow can produce new ones, causing aplastic anaemia. Since it affects all types of blood cells, the patient can suffer from headaches and fatigue (loss of erythrocytes), infections (loss of immunocytes), as well as bleedings and poor wound healing (loss of platelets). Albeit aplastic anaemia does not have a high mortality rate, it greatly affects recovering from higher doses of radiation.

Doses of 2 Gy and above start to affect cells found in gastrointestinal tract. Initially this results in nausea and vomiting, which is used in determining the dosage. If vomiting occurs within 2-6 hours after the exposure, the dose was still considerably low. Although treatment is recommended regardless.

Unfortunately, vomiting just 1-2 hours after exposure already suggests full body exposure of over 4 Gy, and without care this will most certainly be fatal.

Further gastrointestinal damage causes more symptoms. Mild diarrhea starts to occur with doses ranging from 2-6 Gy, usually not long after vomiting starts. Anaemia also begins to worsen making headaches more severe. Infections related to loss of white blood cells contribute to fevers and lack of platelets causes bleedings and purpura and prevents blistering, and ulceration of the irritated skin to heal.

Since skin is usually the first thing coming into contact with radioactive materials it often receives doses surpassing general full body dose this makes skin symptoms of radiation exposure harder to assign to a particular Gy ranges. That being said, earlier symptoms include skin reddening, very similar to sunburn, then blistering, peeling and as the radiation penetrates deeper damage to sweat glands, hair follicles, scarring and necrosis. Paired with collapsed vascular system a whole thickness of skin can fall off despite initially healing.

Hair loss can be observed at 3 Gy or more. Damage to the neurovascular system causes first signs of cognitive impairment. Over 4 Gy and bone marrow transplant is almost certainly required, because while gastrointestinal illness might be manageable, infections attacking severely weakened body will most likely be fatal.

Say your prayers at 6 Gy and upwards as it may be your last moment to do so. Even with intensive care most victims do not survive over 4 weeks. All the ailments worsen: vomiting starts within less than an hour, and those who vomit after less than 10 minutes likely won’t even make it to the day after tomorrow. Diarrhea gets heavier and onsets faster, headaches and fever become debilitating, and central nervous system begins to shut down causing incapacitation, tremors, ataxia, and seizures. There is nothing than can realistically be done with doses over 8 Gy and we have records of victims affected with over 30 Gy, which is an unfathomably painful way to die…

Ionozing radiation is trully a force to be reckoned with.

Signed, reckovering from my own non-radiation-related sickness,

– The Atomic Bard

[atomic-mythologies]

One of the element patches I'm currently making for my atomic jacket. I intend to make three more elements, and I will post pictures once all of them are sewn on.

Both the markings on the jacket and patches were painted with special paint, and thus have a little secret to them, but I should not spoil the surprise for now.

Signed, slightly sick and very busy,

– The Atomic Bard

[atomic-mythologies]

I have begun my work on a personalized outfit for the blog. It has been years since I have made a custom jacket, and I have never been very adept in this, but I hope it will turn out well.

I am going to post more pictures soon, when more decor (and layers of paint) will be added.

Signed, waiting for the paint to dry,

– The Atomic Bard

[atomic-mythologies]

The Saga of Maria Skłodowska-Curie: Part IV

As I mentioned last time, the year 1903 was especially eventful for Curies. Maria Skłodowska-Curie was awarded her doctorate from the University of Paris. Bronisława visited her sister for the celebration and pretty much made her sister pick a new dress for the occasion. Likewise with her wedding outfit, the new, black dress could also serve as a laboratory uniform.

Our beloved couple was gaining popularity in scientific circles around the world. They were invited to speak at the Royal Institution in London on the subject of radioactivity. That is, only Pierre was allowed to speak. Despite being the pioneer and the author of the term itself, Maria was denied a supposedly obvious privilege of giving a lecture. Fortunately, her loving husband made sure it was clear and undisputed who was leading the research.

Even bigger acknowledgment of their work happened in December of the same year. Curies, along with Henri Becquerel, were awarded a Nobel Prize for Physics for the discovery and joint research on the radiation phenomena. Discovery of radium and polonium was carefully omitted from the description as parts of the nominating committee had already been discussing possibility of awarding Curies a Nobel Prize for Chemistry in the foreseeable future.

Sadly, once again, parts of the scientific community were trying to ignore Maria and disregard her accomplishments. Had it not been for the intervention of Swedish mathematician Magnus Goesta Mittag-Leffler, only Henri and Pierre would be receiving the prize, since only the two men were actually nominated by the French Academy of Sciences. Aforementioned Swede warned Pierre of this atrocious decision, and both objected to committees’ actions, making sure Maria would be awarded as an undeniable contributor to the discovery and research of radiation.

It took Curies over year and a half to make a trip to Stokholm for the mandatory lecture expected from the laureates. Their fame brought unwelcome attention to their previously quiet and secluded lifestyle. The stress from being followed by the pesky journalists and an additional burden in form of mountains of written correspondence, that needed to be send, exhausted and disturbed the couple, who wanted nothing more than ability to return to their quaint life and to work in peace. Pierre would often express his grievances in letters he had been sending to his friend:

“We continue to lead the same life of people who are extremely occupied, without being able to accomplish anything interesting. It is now more than a year since I have been able to engage in any research, and I have no moment to myself. Clearly I have not yet discovered a means to defend ourselves against this frittering away of our time which is nevertheless extremely necessary. Intellectually, it is a question of life or death.”

Years of working with radioactive materials with virtually no protection whatsoever had already been taking an enormous toll on their health. They had been continuously losing weight, and both had severely damaged fingertips. Fatigue and chronic pains were constantly plaguing them. Pierre was in even worse shape, as he would often wake up in the middle of the night from debilitating pain. Unbeknownst to them, Curies were suffering from what we would call today chronic radiation syndrome.  

Despite those hardships, the Noble Prize led to a noticeable improvement in our scientists’ situation. The money they’ve received allowed them to hire their first assistant. Sorbonne, recognizing the achievement awarded Pierre with a professorship and the chair of physics. And yet, even then, University of Paris initially refused to grant him a proper laboratory. Pierre was appointed to his new position in 1904, but it took Sorbonne two more years to complete furnishing the space for Curies.

Tragically, Pierre never saw his laboratory in its full glory. On the 19th of April 1906, he was run over be a horse-drawn vehicle, with the blow killing him instantly. Somber news reached Curies’ household in the evening and Maria, trying to cope with the sudden loss of her love wasted no time making necessary arrangements and preparations for the funeral.

“Your coffin was closed and I could see you no more. I didn’t allow them to cover it with the horrible black cloth. I covered it with flowers and I sat beside it.... They filled the grave and put sheaves of flowers on it. Everything is over, Pierre is sleeping his last sleep beneath the earth; it is the end of everything, everything, everything. I am working in the laboratory all day long, it is all I can do; I am better off there than anywhere else. I conceive of nothing any more that could give me personal joy, except perhaps scientific work–and even there, no, because if I succeeded with it, I would not endure you not to know it.”

The French government offered a state pension to the widow and her children, but Maria was firm in her refusal. She did, however, accept invitation from the Sorbonne to take up her late husband’s post. On November 1906 Maria Skłodowska-Curie, the first female professor of Sorbonne, gave her inaugural lecture.

With the title, she has inherited the laboratory, and, to honor Pierre’s legacy, she vowed to transform it into a bona-fide scientific institution. Of course, doing so on your own is next to impossible. And once again the effort of our heroine (and a lack of thereof from the scientific community) was noticed. In 1907, American steel manufacturer Andrew Carnegie established scholarship to fund a research staff consisting of promising, young scientists. Disappointed by the University of Paris and its unwillingness to grant Maria a proper research facility, bacteriologist Pierre Paul Émile Roux suggested she could move from Sorbonne to the private Pasteur Institute, where Roux was the director. Once again, upon the threat of losing important faculty member, University relented and joined efforts with the private foundation in creating The Radium Institute, nowadays known as The Curie Institute.

The institution was split into two divisions: medical research laboratory was directed by a physician called Claudius Regaud. Meanwhile, the physics and chemical research laboratory was given to Maria.

At last, a worthy research facility!

Then, an even greater achievement came. In 1910, our heroine finally isolated pure radium metal. Moreover, she has been granted the honor of defining an international standard for radium emissions:

“Curie. A unit of radioactivity. One Curie is the quantity of a radioactive substance that decays at the rate of 3.7 x 1010 disintegrations per second.”

Sadly, she has never managed to isolate polonium. This elusive element has a half-life of only 138 days, a fact Skłodowska-Curie was unaware of. Nevertheless, isolating radium was a tremendous achievement on its own. And even without it she has already proven the existence of both elements. Her discoveries expanded our knowledge about the atom and led to progress in many various scientific fields. For those accomplishments, in 1911, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences presented her a second Nobel Prize, this time in chemistry. She was the first person in history who was awarded by the committee twice, and one of only five people who currently hold this achievement.

In 1914, construction of the Radium Institute was finally completed, however it wasn’t until 1919, after the end of the Great War, that the research in the facility would properly begin. Maria Skłodowska-Curie spent the remaining years of her life working there and tutoring the next generation of scientists. All the researchers working under her she considered her children. Together, between its opening in 1919 and Maria’s death in 1934, the Radium Institute published four hundred and eighty-three works in total.

She worked almost to the very end of her life. When she was too weak to visit the lab, she would stay at home write her book Radioactivity. She made her last visit to the institute in May 1934. She has died on 4th of July the same year from leukemia caused by the chronic radiation syndrome.

And thus, story of her life is finished, but her legacy lives on. She continues to inspire scientists all over the world to this very day. And it is hardly the last time I should speak of this saint woman. There are many anecdotes I omitted for the sake of coherency and I shall return to them one day. Her students’ chronicles are too, stories worth telling and one day they will be presented here as well.

But for now, this is the end.

Signed, a faithful devotee to the benevolent Maria Skłodowska-Curie,

– The Atomic Bard

[atomic-mythologies]

The Benevolent Mother of Radioactivity – Maria Skłodowska-Curie

I decided to take a little break from writing "The Saga" and make an illustrated tribute to one of the most wonderful people in the world of science.

I should return to writing soon, but I'm also planning a few posts dedicated to other media

Signed, tired and cursing their academic life,

– The Atomic Bard

[atomic-mythologies]

The Saga of Maria Skłodowska-Curie: Part III

Both Röntgen and Becquerel had used photographic plates as a way of recording the existence of invisible rays.

Maria deemed that approach to be lacking in precision.

Instead she brought an invention of Pierre and his brother – a type of electrometer. Said device was able to measure the electrical currents present in the air that had been exposed to radiation.

Such method proved to be a right direction forward. With the electrometer results became clear – the state of uranium did not affect the strength of its radiation. Neither any other external factors. The only way to amplify the effects of this peculiar element was to use more of it. This meant one thing – it was the innate property of the uranium atoms themselves.

Our beloved scientist scrambled to test all other elements she could acquire to assess, if this miraculous ability could be found somewhere else. Her hypothesis was proven correct, as in 1898 she discovered that Thorium was also…..  

Hmm……

How would you even call this phenomena? Maria has decided on the term radioactivity, derived from the Latin radius and French actif.

Concurrently to measuring radioactivity of the elements, she began experiments on two uranium ores – pitchblende and chalcolite. Meanwhile, Pierre became so infatuated with the research his wife was conducting that he suspended his own work into crystals and joined her insteaded. When measuring radioactivity of the aforementioned ores they found something truly astonishing – both rocks were much more powerful than pure uranium.

Could this mean that the ore contained something yet unseen? Curies began working as a tandem to uncover this great mystery.

“Neither of us could foresee that in beginning this work we were to enter the path of a new science which we should follow for all our future.”

But alas, proving the existence of previously undiscovered elements was no easy task. Pitchblende was a very complex ore and extracting specific substances required multiple steps. As the pioneers in researching this specific rock they often had to come up with adequate analysis methods on their own. After each conducted reaction Curies would measure the radioactivity of separated products and progress with the one yielding stronger results.

This process led them to distilling two highly radioactive substances: one with element closely resembling bismuth and one similar to barium. While they couldn’t yet create a pure samples of either, this was enough to prove a discovery of two new elements. This would grant them one of the greatest scientific privileges – uncovering the still unknown parts of the periodic table. 

Maria decided to name the first of the discovered elements polonium to honor her home country. The other one (related to barium) was dubbed radium, as the scientist once again drew inspiration from the Latin word radius, meaning ray.

Unfortunately for our heroine, discovering polonium and radium was merely the beginning of gruesome quest to isolate them.

Thankfully, others recognized value in her research and provided crucial assistance. Austrian government donated a literal ton of pitchblende from their mines in hopes that Curies would discover a possible use for the material previously considered to be waste. Although a thousand kilos may sound like an overly generous amount, radium is so sparce it only contains one tenth of not even a pure element, but its chloride salt.

In addition to the received materials, Central Chemical Products Company (which was marketing Pierre’s scientific instruments) offered space and manpower for processing those gargantuous amounts of ore, on a much larger scale than what could be achieved in a tiny, makeshift laboratory Curies were still using. Only the already distilled samples would be send there for further experiments. Of course, the company wouldn’t agree to process materials completely pro bono. They were compensated with a share of radium salts extracted there. This would quickly turn into a lucrative investment, when radium and its salt would soon become incredibly popular.

Curies did not expect how much the world would be infatuated with their discovery, even though they themselves were mesmerized by it:

“One of our joys was to go into our workroom at night; we then perceived on all sides the feebly luminous silhouettes of the bottles or capsules containing our products. It was really a lovely sight and one always new to us. The glowing tubes looked like faint, fairy lights”

Yes, the substances gave a faint glow, and this property would soon be utilized in paint coating dials, watches and other instruments, that would benefit from being readable in the dark. This however, is tied to a rather gruesome story, that I shall tell on a different occasion.

Pierre thought their discovery could also be useful in cancer treatment. He conducted experiments on the way radium exposure affected living organisms and found that radiation could damage and kill tissue, but tumorous cells would die much faster than healthy ones. This revelation brought another investor – Armet de Lisle who received initial technical help with processing pitchblende and in turn provided Curies with some of the salts his facilities would produce.

While the radium industry would grow exponentially in the upcoming years, our scientists benefited very little from it. Curies published detailed instructions on processing pitchblende, as well as papers describing properties of radium compounds, without patenting any of it. As scientists they believed that the knowledge produced by them should be widely available, for the benefit of humanity as a whole.

What a virtuous stance it is, to share wisdom freely in hopes for the better future of mankind!

Regrettably, financial situation of Curies looked rather gloomy. Since they did not receive money from the industry they had helped build, their only source of income were their positions as academics.

Not being able to find a better post in France, Pierre started to look for opportunities outside the country. Miraculously, when the University of Geneva offered a worthy salary and properly equipped laboratory for him and his wife, suddenly Sorbonne was able to grant him chair of physics. Still, no new research space could be provided. At the same time Maria became a faculty member in the École normale supérieure de jeunes filles in Sèvres, but the increased pay equaled with more responsibilities for both of them.

And soon all of it started taking toll on their health. But increased workload and stress weren’t the most detrimental. Unbeknownst to them, their wonderful discovery, their mesmerizing glowing bottles containing their lives work, the substances they’ve spent years researching, were slowly killing them. And they had no idea.

Through this dangerous unawareness Curies continued the research through all the hardships. Since the initial discovery in 1898 they’ve published a total of 32 papers in a span of four years. Then, the year 1903 was especially eventful.

But goodness, I have been rambling for a while now.

I shall continue the story on another day…

If you have missed the previous chapter, you can find it here.

Signed, stuck in a library,

– The Atomic Bard

[atomic-mythologies]

The Saga of Maria Skłodowska-Curie: Part II

The year is 1891. Young Maria Skłodowska is setting off to Paris to reunite with her sister Bronisława and pursue her higher education.

Both women chose this city, because that’s where most of Polish elite was immigrating after leaving their oppressed country. Some exiles, some left by choice for a better life, and some were pursuing opportunities to fight for independence.

One of the places of congregation for the Polish diaspora was the apartment of Bronisława and her husband, a doctor of medicine, Kazimierz Dłuski, where Maria was to initially stay.

However, getting involved with the exile community was risky and could harm her family or her career, should she ever return to Poland. Even worse, the apartment was an hour away from the Sorbonne where Maria was studying.

And that was an atrocious amount of time wasted on daily commute, way to much than Maria could tolerate.

Just a couple months after moving to Paris, she rented a tiny room situated in one of the attics in the Latin Quarter. Her living conditions were very common among students (some will say still are). That is to say, they were immensely humble. In winter, the feeble stove couldn’t provide sufficient heating and Maria used to pile up all of her clothes onto the bed just to get through the nights.

But the freedom! Oh, the freedom to do as you please, to study for hours on end (often without eating or sleeping, causing Bronisława to worry after her little sister), and being allowed to chase your dreams free of the past restrains.

“All that I saw and learned that was new delighted me. It was like a new world opened to me, the world of science, which I was at last permitted to know in all liberty.”

   Despite her initial shortcomings caused by insufficient education in Poland she has obtained her first degree in physics in 1893 and, through the scholarship she received, completed another one in math a year later.

During that time she was granted yet another opportunity as the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry has commissioned her to conduct a study on magnetic properties of various steel alloys. For this she needed a lab space, and searching for one led her to the most wonderful encounter in her life.

Certain Polish acquaintance of Maria introduced her to the laboratory chief at the Municipal School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry in Paris, who he thought could have access to the adequate space for Maria’s experiments.

The man she has been referred to was none other than Pierre Curie.

While it turned out that Pierre in fact, couldn’t provide a laboratory, the two scientists found a sincere kinship in one another. Soon, Pierre made it clear, that he wished to pursue science for the good of humanity alongside Maria. She was hesitant at first, since it would most likely mean abandoning any real plans on coming back to her home country. This reluctance didn't last long, though, as she was swayed by his sincerity and heartfelt desire to share his life and work with the woman he saw as his equal in every measure.

“It would, nevertheless, be a beautiful thing in which I hardly dare believe, to pass through life together hypnotized in our dreams: your dream for your country; our dream for humanity; our dream for science. Of all these dreams, I believe the last, alone, is legitimate.”

Truly, a match made in heaven. In 1895 they married in Sceaux and spent the honeymoon on a biking trip around the country. The dark blue outfit Maria wore to the ceremony instead of a traditional gown would become her laboratory attire.

In the same year Pierre has completed his doctorate and Maria (now Skłodowka-Curie) has continued her research for the Society for the Encouragement of National Industry using a small space provided by Municipal School of Industrial Physics and Chemistry, where Pierre has been granted a professorship.

Meanwhile, in the world of science, Röntgen and Becquerel made two discoveries crucial to our stories. The X-rays and, more importantly, so-called Becquerel-rays emitted by uranium salts intrigued Maria and she decided to pursue the mystery behind them in her PhD thesis. Municipal School has once again provided a space for research, and, once again, it was inadequate to say the least. The small, damp storeroom, that used to be a dissecting room has become her lab. And this “miserable, old shed” as she would call it, was a birthplace of the concept we know as radioactivity.

But that, will be a story for another day…

If you have missed the previous chapter, you can find it here.

Signed, still tired and in need of coffee,

– The Atomic Bard

[atomic-mythologies]

The Saga of Maria Skłodowska-Curie: Part I

Few and far between are the people so worthy of praise and recognition as Maria Salomea Skłodowska-Curie.

The fifth and youngest child of two teachers, born in Warsaw, during the time when Poland was divided between three powers: Austria, Prussia and Russia. Her home city, a former capital, was taken by the Russian Empire, where education was heavily controlled by the foreign government, forbidding any patriotic sentiment and punishing everyone who dared to oppose them.

Fortunately, her parents, devoted to their mission as teachers, did their best to give their children a proper education. When Russian authorities eliminated laboratory instruction from the curriculum, her father, who taught mathematics and physics, took the scientific equipment home and lectured Maria and her siblings on how to use it.

Ambitious and diligent student, she graduated from a secondary school with a gold medal, however, neither her, nor her sister Bronisława had the ability to pursue higher education, as only men were allowed to enroll.

Thank the world that didn’t stop them.

The sisters made a pact: first, Bronisława would go to Paris to study medicine, while Maria would stay in Poland and support her sister financially, by working as a tutor and later a governess. Then, when the older sister graduated, she would repay the favor by paying for the younger’s studies and stay in Paris.

Hardworking as ever, Maria didn’t waste a second, while she waited her turn. When she was a governess in the home of a beet-sugar factory owner she was allowed to teach illiterate children of peasants and workers in her free time; despite the risk it warranted, as such actions would be looked down by the Russian officials.

Beside teaching others, she has also found ways to further her own education. She knew it was necessary, if she wanted to keep up with her fellow students in Paris. Her father taught her advanced math by mail and she took chemistry classes from one of the beet-sugar factory chemists.

Before Bronisława left for France, both had gotten involved in the grassroots patriotic initiative known as the “Flying University”.

The name came from the institution’s modus operandi: location, where classes were taught was constantly changing in order to remain hidden from the inimical government. Brave and yearning to learn youth was meeting in secret not only to pursue their own education, but also to find ways in which they could bring the light of knowledge to those who couldn’t otherwise obtain it.

“It was one of those groups of Polish youths who believed that the hope of their country lay in a great effort to develop the intellectual and moral strength of the nation....we agreed among ourselves to give evening courses, each one teaching what he knew best.”

At last, in 1891, she had enough funds secured to join her sister in Paris...

...And this is where I’ll end this chapter.

Until next time,

Signed, somewhat tired due to exam season

– The Atomic Bard

[atomic-mythologies]

How it all started

I believe it is best to start with the beginning.

Before the Radium Girls succumbed to their illness, before Cecil Kelley’s brain was put in a mayonnaise jar, and way, way before the long term nuclear waste become a problem to consider.

The specific radiation we associate with radioactivity – a core subject of the stories hereby presented, is but a fraction of the electromagnetic (EM) radiation spectrum. It was also the last to be discovered.

The first fragment was (for obvious reasons) the visible light spectrum, term first coined by sir Isaac Newton. Then, an expansion beyond what our eyes can normally see – infrared and ultraviolet both discovered using the sunlight and a prism. William Herschel used the former rays to heat a thermometer and Johann Wilhelm Ritter proved existence of ultraviolet by darkening sodium chloride exposed to it, which later contributed to discovery of photography. In turn, photographic plates proved to be quite useful in discovering other parts of EM spectrum.

Further discoveries required more sophisticated tools. With the use of electrical circuits, as well as equations made by James Clerk Maxwell, Heinrich Hertz produced radio waves and microwaves, and later found ways to detect them. X-rays were also discovered thanks to electricity, when Wilhelm Röntgen put glass discharge tubes under high voltage. Tubes started emitting invisible rays and caused a faint glow on a coated glass screen Röntgen has used for his experiments. By registering rays passing through different objects on a photographic plate (told you photography will make a comeback in this story) he created the first radiographs.

Then lo and behold, last but certainly not least – radioactivity.

Henri Becquerel heard about Röntgen’s discovery. Becquerel, who at that time has been studying phosphorescence, took interest in the invisible, penetrative rays, thinking that maybe phosphorescent materials were emitting something similar, when exposed to bright sunlight.

And so, he also decided to try and make pictures using supposed X-ray-like radiation doing as he himself described:

One wraps a Lumière photographic plate with a bromide emulsion in two sheets of very thick black paper, such that the plate does not become clouded upon being exposed to the sun for a day. One places on the sheet of paper, on the outside, a slab of the phosphorescent substance, and one exposes the whole to the sun for several hours. When one then develops the photographic plate, one recognizes that the silhouette of the phosphorescent substance appears in black on the negative. If one places between the phosphorescent substance and the paper a piece of money or a metal screen pierced with a cut-out design, one sees the image of these objects appear on the negative.

Eureka! Well, sort of.

Shadows of small objects were preserved on the developed plates as the scientist had hoped. But that was not the discovery of radioactivity. Not yet.

Way more fascinating thing happened when there was no sun present. Bad weather halted the experiments and everything was put in the cabinet. Thankfully, Becquerel was a proper man of science, and developed the plates that were kept in the dark, just to see what would happen. Much to his surprise the shadows on these plates were identical to the sunny day ones.

Something other than sunlight has caused his phosphorescent materials to radiate. Soon he found out that some non-phosphorescent substances were also disturbing photographic emulsion. Another culprit has emerged: uranium and its salts. Then, an even bigger revelation – they needed no stimuli do behave this way!

An intense research has begun. Other scientists were inspired by Becquerel's discoveries and followed suit. Most notably – Maria Skłodowska-Curie and her husband, Pierre Curie. It was actually Maria who coined the term “radioactivity”. But that will be a tale for another day…

Before I sign off for today I would like to present to You my self-portrait based on my radiograph:

Signed, hopefully not too radiant,

- The Atomic Bard 

[atomic-mythologies]

Long-term nuclear waste warning messages or Nuclear Semiotics

This is a bit of a part 2 to the introduction, where I further explain the concept behind the blog. Our knowledge of radioactive materials and nuclear physics has expanded greatly over the decades of research and modern reactors are actually a very reliable, safe and clean source of energy. Nearly all of nuclear fuel can be recycled back either into fuel again, or other safer substances.

 However, some High-Level Waste (HLW for short) can’t (at least for now) be fully treated like that, and need to be deposed in safe manner, which means being shielded and kept cool. The half-life of HLW can range from thousands to millions of years, which is a quite problematic amount of time.

Don’t panic, there isn’t much of this waste as of now, but we gotta start thinking about more permanent methods of keeping is safe, if we want to move from fossil fuels to nuclear power. The most commonly agreed on solution is to BURY IT DEEP IN THE GROUND WHERE WE CAN HOPE NOBODY FINDS IT. Because we (as in the currently living) will know where and what is stored, but how long will that knowledge last? Hundred years? Few hundred? What about thousands or millions?  

How do you create a warning lasting millennia?

That’s where the subject of Long-term nuclear waste warning messages comes in. It’s hardly a new thing, actually. In 1980 US Department of Energy established the Human Interference Task Force (HITF) comprising of researchers both from STEM and Humanities in order to come up with potential strategies to warn our descendants hundreds of generations later. The research in this interdisciplinary field (as stated on Wikipedia) is called NUCLEAR SEMIOTICS.

While there is no solution that is guaranteed to work, there are certain recommendations such messages should adhere to. Here are some of them:

Redundancy – the more warning labels and signs you will put, the higher chance that someone will see them and understand it even it one of the warning signs is a bit outdated another one next to it might give crucial context.

Universality – HITF was focused on finding and using what they called “natural messages”, which had a “power to signify the same things at all times and in all places”. We need to come up with signs that can be understood beyond cultural barriers.

 Symbolism – we could use folkloristic devices to send the message across generations. Even if a scientific context is gone, the message that the place is shunned can persevere through “nurtured ritual-and-legend”.

Rerecording – it’s easier to make a message that needs to be understood “only” three generations forward than say three hundred generations. Thus we when creating a message we should include instructions for our immediate descendants to rerecord it in the most clear and durable way that is known to them and then pass the duty of keeping the message alive to their children and grandchildren.

Atomic Mythologies tap mostly into the third of these principles. I want to try and turn the knowledge into stories, rituals and artifacts that can be replicated launching the message forward.

I suppose I should sign these posts off going forward. And so, to go along with the folkloristic theme of the blog I shall call myself The Atomic Bard. The arguments behind this nickname are as follows:

1. Bards used to be people who have been trusted with keeping and relaying important information in a narrative manner.

2. It’s my favourite D&D class.

And thus, this lengthy explanation is over, although it’s hardly the last time you shall hear about the nuclear semiotics and the likes of the Human Interference Task Force.

Signed Yours truly,

– The Atomic Bard

[atomic-mythologies]

Introduction

What are Atomic Mythologies?

Atomic Mythologies are an experiment in nuclear semiotics. The goal is to create a mythos surrounding the broader subject of nuclear energy, that could potentially ingrain itself in the culture for generations to come. The idea is that fables, myths and legends have been a tool for memorizing and passing down important information since the dawn of humanity.

While the project is called "mythologies" the stories presented here will be based on facts and historical and scientific records, giving them genuine educational value, and they will be (hopefully) told using multiple mediums.