11.22.06
Posted in Anything goes, Historical Trivia, History, Uncategorized at 5:38 pm by Administrator
I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving! I just got back from the market to pick up all the turkey fixin’s, and boy was the market a zoo! There’s gonna be a lot of eating tomorrow! We’ll be doing the gobble, gobble along with the rest with the usual turkey and ham. That made me wonder how “turkey” came to be so popular during Thanksgiving. I googled it, and came up with a site that states that the first Thanksgiving meal likely was much different from what we think today as a “traditional” thanksgiving spread. According to this link, this is what they think was likely eaten:
The Pilgrims’ Menu
Foods That May Have Been on the Menu
~Seafood: Cod, Eel, Clams, Lobster
~Wild Fowl: Wild Turkey, Goose, Duck, Crane, Swan, Partridge, Eagles
~Meat: Venison, Seal
~Grain: Wheat Flour, Indian Corn
~Vegetables: Pumpkin, Peas, Beans, Onions, Lettuce, Radishes, Carrots
~Fruit: Plums, Grapes
~Nuts: Walnuts, Chestnuts, Acorns
~Herbs and Seasonings: Olive Oil, Liverwort, Leeks, Dried Currants, Parsnips
What Was Not on the Menu
Surprisingly, the following foods, all considered staples of the modern Thanksgiving meal, didn’t appear on the pilgrims’s first feast table:
~Ham: There is no evidence that the colonists had butchered a pig by this time, though they had brought pigs with them from England.
~Sweet Potatoes/Potatoes: These were not common.
~Corn on the Cob: Corn was kept dried out at this time of year.
~Cranberry Sauce: The colonists had cranberries but no sugar at this time.
~Pumpkin Pie: It’s not a recipe that exists at this point, though the pilgrims had recipes for stewed pumpkin.
~Chicken/Eggs: We know that the colonists brought hens with them from England, but it’s unknown how many they had left at this point or whether the hens were still laying.
~Milk: No cows had been aboard the Mayflower, though it’s possible that the colonists used goat milk to make cheese.
Source: Kathleen Curtin, Food Historian at Plimoth Plantation.
Hmm. Sounds like their meal might have been more delectable than what we consider “traditional!” I think next year I just may arrange to have our Thanksgiving meal with more seafood. Hmmm. Venison and seal may be a bit more difficult to get, tho.
If anyone’s interested in reading a little Thanksgiving history, it appears the first Thanksgiving meal was in 1621. More can be read here.
HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
Marlakins 
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11.15.06
Posted in Anything goes, Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, Uncategorized at 9:19 pm by Administrator
We took our two younger boys to the California Science Museum yesterday. We’ve been there before, but it’s always fun to go back and check in to see if anything new has been added. I brought along my digital camera in case there was anything of interest to take. Actually, it has changed a little since the last time we were there. There was this addition pictured below.
I’m always amazed at the tiny cockpit space. To think that a person is actually squeezed in there while flying at an altitude of 60,000 ft, and at the speed of Mach 2 (according to the placqard). This is an A-12 Blackbird. It’s first flight was in January 1963 and has had 614 flights. Below is another view of it.
The building that can be just seen in the background is the Air and Space Museum. It looks like it’s growing on top of the jet. . . ah, one of these days I’ll learn better photo composition! The picture below is of the California Science Museum, where we stomped about for a few hours. This is the newer side.
The Imax Theater is the structure on the left, and the Science Museum is on the right. The picture below is the other side of the Science Museum with the “old” facade. This faces the rose garden.
The Natural History Museum is off on the far right (not shown in this picture). The Los Angeles Memorial Coloseum where the track and field for the 1984 Olympics was held is just behind the Science Museum from this view. And finally, a few things I thought were interesting from the “inside” of the museum were in the “biology” section.
With my interest in “blood,” I snapped a pic of this display of a “blood substitute” that is being explored for humans. Supposedly, it’s still not ready for human use, but it’s in the works. The product in the bottle to the left is called “Oxygent.” The product doesn’t have any blood in it, so it isn’t red. Also, it doesn’t matter what blood type a person is once this product is completed.
Another exhibit I liked was on digestion, which had displays of the stomach and intestine. There were some amusing facts such as if the small intestine were stretched out flat it would be about 180 inches long. And each “inch” stretched to 16 sq ft! That’s a lot of surface space!
There were lots of fun things to look at. Another bit of trivia was regarding how fast the electrical signals in our nerves travel. Aaron and I figured, using the museum’s equation, that our nerves travel at 225 mph! Zip!
Well, that’s about it. There was a lot more, but I liked those.
Marlakins 
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11.11.06
Posted in Anything goes, Uncategorized at 12:07 am by Administrator
Both my sisters are workaholics, and as a result, it seems I hardly see them. . . Phone calls and emails just aren’t the same as the real thing. Here’s a happy moment when the three of us actually got together last September. I really cherish these moments.
So today I was very happy and wanted to capture another moment because my oldest sister took me out shopping at the Grove for my birthday (belated).
I feel like I’ve been celebrating my birthday for over a week because birthday wishes have been “trickling” in. One of my long-time friends even sent me a “belated” birthday card for the “first” time in over 15 years. Ever since she moved up north, she has always remembered to send me and my three boys birthday cards “on time,” even. Her diligence has put me to shame and has prodded me to be more organised in terms of remembering birthdates (Good friends help to make us better people, I think). She even picked out cards that corresponded with each of my boys’ ages. But this year, I didn’t get one. . . And that surely didn’t go unnoticed by me! Wah. Then this week I got a “belated” birthday card from her with an explanation that she woke up and realised she had forgotten to send me a card. We are starting to get up there in years, and she wrote that she was hoping that this memory lapse isn’t a result of aging, yikes! But I have to admit I was relieved because I was wondering if she didn’t love me anymore. I’m not picky, I’ll take belated! Ha ha! Actually, I’m sure life is getting more hectic for her as her son grows and gets more involved with other activities. And since hectic work schedules make get-togethers hard to organise, I’ve already had three separate birthday dinners! 
If that’s a result of aging, well, then aging isn’t so bad!
Here’s one more pic my sis took of me at the Grove tonight. Thanksgiving isn’t even here, yet, but today they were already putting up Christmas decorations. Ah, I can already hear those cash registers going “ca-ching!”
Isn’t it nice when siblings get along? I’m so thankful for the sisters that God gave me. Families are wonderful.
Marlakins
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11.10.06
Posted in Anything goes, Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, History, Uncategorized at 12:16 am by Administrator
At the end of “Radiation part 4,” I mentioned I wanted to move away from the public reactions and go back to the scientists to see what they were doing with x-ray radiation. Just as the x-ray radiation and radium craze was flourishing in the public eyes of Europe and in the U.S. in April 1896, the medical community also quickly began the practice of X-ray “therapy” by November 1896. Almost simultaneously, early discoveries were already being made of the damaging effects of x-ray on the human body. In 1898, William Roentgen, discoverer of the x-ray, warned A. W. Isenthal, representative of the English Roentgen Society, of the biological effects of the X-rays and shared a large portfolio which included pictures revealing the affects on skin. Upon Isenthal’s return to England, and his subsequent report of Roentgen’s warning, not much interest was evoked. Isenthal, however, claimed he personally took immediate precautions to protect himself as did a few other members of the Roentgen Society who consequently began to consider the possiblity of harmful effects. It should be noted that William Roentgen made his discovery of x-ray in Germany, and his warning was made to British scientists. It appears that in March 1896, Thomas Edison in the U.S. had already reported that his eyes were sore after experimenting with x-rays. In April 18, 1896, L.G. Stevens, an English physician reported in the British Medical Journal that “those who worked with X-rays suffer from changes of the skin which are similar in effect from the sun burn.” It did not appear that they were yet fully aware of the nature of damage to tissue, although it was becoming clear that there was some damage. T.C. Gilchrist of Johns Hopkins Hospital reviewed 23 cases of X-ray injury that had already been reported in literature in 1896. N.S. Scott of Cleveland reviewed 69 reports of X-ray injury. According to Richard F. Mould, author of A Century of X-rays and Radioactivity in Medicine, “review papers discussing the hazards of over-exposure to radiation continued to appear in the radiological literature in the first decade of this century, but in spite of these warnings of the dangers of superficial injuries though indiscriminate exposure to X-rays, the radiation protection facilities for many workers were rudimentary or non-existent for many years.” This was evident in the continued sales of products containing radium and radium dialpainters in the 1920 and 30s. Even Marie Curie and her husband, Pierre, experienced damage to their own hands, yet, it was their belief that it was a cure for cancer! While Thomas Edison and William Roentgen realized the dangers, others like Marie Curie believed x-ray and radium could be used to cure various illnesses.
Early x-ray therapy in 1907 was used to treat conditions such as cutaneous affections including lupus erythematosus, lupus vulgaris, alopecia areata, eczema, acne, pruritis ani, xeroderma pigmentosum, psoriasis, senile leg lulcers, varicose veins, leprosy and more. Malignant growths were also treated with X-ray along with leukemia, tuberculosis, and other miscellaneous affections like migraines, epilepsy, keloids, etc. While X-ray is still used today, the applications have changed a bit as the understanding of X-ray has become more complete.
X-ray imagery was implimented during wars as early as 1897. Germany supported the Turks in the Graeco-Turkish war in 1897 providing a hospital unit. During that war the British Red Cross was able to use fluoroscopes to aid in the location of fractures, bullets, and other projectiles. It was from this war that problems were revealed concerning lack of reliable electrical power to run the x-ray machines on the battlefields. This was later solved by “pedal power” and hand-operated Roentgen 
cabinets in 1898. X-ray was also used in the Boer War in 1899-1902. An ambulance is shown in this picture on the right. X-ray was also used on battlefields of Sudan at the Battle of Omdurman in 1898, the Spanish-American War of 1898, and the Russo-Japanese war of 1905. It wasn’t until WWI, that American military radiology was practised on or near the battlefield.
Finally in 1921 the British X-ray and Radium Protection Committee was formed followed by the International Radiation Protection Committee in 1928. It was the United States Advisory Committee on X-ray and Radium Protection in 1934, which initiated the principle of maximum tolerance dose of X-rays. However, according to Mould, “General acceptance of protection procedures was too late to prevent radiation injuries to superficial tissues, blood and internal organs of some of the early workers in the radiation field. Many of them are remembered by a monument erected by the German Roentgen Society in Hamburg in 1936 to the X-ray and radium martyrs. This memorial originally contained 169 names from 15 different nations, but by 1959, the total had risen to 360. Roentgen was not among them possibly because his experiments were mainly radiographic as opposed to fluoroscopic [The fluoroscope is an x-ray machine which leaves the x-ray beam "on" while the physician examines the motions of a patient's organs, and/or the motions of various instruments and catheters during surgical and other procedures], and his X-ray tubes were housed within a metal box. The memorial does, though, include Marie Curie.”
Prior to the development of the nationally accepted standard for the maximum tolerance of x-ray dose, self-exposure experiments were a common procedure used to determine patient exposure. The operator commonly used his own skin to test out the point at which the skin would turn red. 
The picture at the right is an example of x-ray damage to the hands from repeated exposure. This is an advanced stage. The early stages appear like dermatitis with a shrivelled and wrinkled look. The later progression starts to develop lesions, which after years progresses to what is shown in the picture at the right. Mould’s book, A Century of X-rays and Radioactivity in Medicine, has a few pictures showing the progression of radiation damage to Mihran Kassabian’s hands, a radiologist in Philadelphia in 1903, before his hands were amputated. Kassabian died in 1910 due to radiation induced cancer.
Further uses for X-rays have been old paintings and other museum artifacts. Radiographs of oil paints revealed metallic pigments, adjustments by the artist, damages and restorations. These findings help to determine authenticity of the artifacts. Archeological finds such as Eygptian mummies have also been subjected to radiograph to reveal more information about their conditions.
More history on X-ray in medicine can be read here.
Marlakins
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11.07.06
Posted in Anything goes, God, Uncategorized at 1:17 am by Administrator
I’ve been in a crafty mood lately and just stumbled onto a knitter’s website, which had a section on free patterns and listed knitting for charities. Daily Knitting for Charities
This reminded me of 1 Corinthians 13
“1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal. 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. 3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. 4 Charity suffereth long, and is kind; charity envieth not; charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, 5 Doth not behave itself unseemly, seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, thinketh no evil; 6 Rejoiceth not in iniquity, but rejoiceth in the truth; 7 Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things. 8 Charity never faileth: but whether there be prophecies, they shall fail; whether there be tongues, they shall cease; whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 9 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. 10 But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away. 11 When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things. 12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. 13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”
The next thing that came to mind is the modern day use of the word “charity.” These days we think of charity as giving to the poor or doing some type of volunteer work to help the needy. But I believe the word “charity” as is used in 1 Corinthians 13 above refers to an older and deeper meaning of charity, which is “love of humanity.” The Greeks had at least three different words for love–phileo, eros, and agape. Phileo is to love, to be friendly to one, to delight in, to long for. Eros is a love between a man and a woman. Involving a sexual type of love. Agape is a selfless devotion to something or unconditional commitment to another. A devoted love. The Greek word used for charity in 1 Corinthians 13 is “agape,” not phileo, eros, or any other Greek word for love. Agape is a special love that is used in the Bible. Agape is the type of love Jesus gave and involves loving those who don’t love you. Jesus said, “You have heard love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but what good is it to love those who love you? Love your enemies and pray for those who mistreat you.” Agape is a powerful, deep and devotional love, the type of sacrifice Jesus gave to us as an example. This seems to indicate more than just giving to the poor as 1 Corinthians 13:3 states:
“And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.”
One would think bestowing all my goods to feed the poor IS charity as we think of it today, but obviously that is not the kind of charity to which is being referred. I believe it is “agape” love that we need–the kind of unconditional love that Jesus gave to us.
Marlakins
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11.05.06
Posted in Anything goes, Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, History, Uncategorized at 11:47 pm by Administrator
As we have seen in my radiation post part three, “The Fascination with X-rays,” news of the miraculous x-rays spread through the public and the medical field. However, amidst the confidence of the benefits of x-rays, there were those who were beginning to become cautious. The poem below reveals a playful concern:
I hear they’ll gaze
Through cloak and gown–and even stays
Those naughty, naughty Rontgen rays.
It wasn’t long before the destructive power of x-ray began to make it’s appearance. It was Thomas Edison who was to discover this as his assistant, Clarence Dally, began to develop burns on his hands from handling x-ray equipment without protection during experiments. With time, the burns would heal, but by 1902 after repeated exposures to x-rays (He perhaps handled the equipment since 1896), Dally’s lesions became resistant to treatment, and he developed cancer on his hands. The cancer continued to spread, and although Dally’s arm and opposite hand were amputated, the cancer continued to spread throughout his body. After his assistant, Clarence Dally, had practically lost the use of both his arms, and even before Dally’s death in 1904, Edison discontinued his work with x-ray stating that he was afraid of them as well as radium and polonium, both known to have properties of radioactivity. By 1904, Clarence Dally was dead. He became the first known American fatality caused by x-ray radiation. Thomas Edison himself damaged his eyes from the use of x-rays. It is said that thereafter, he refused to be x-rayed until his death at the age of 84.
Meanwhile, the public continued to be largely unaware of the dangers of x-rays and radioactive substances. Radium, the radioactive element discovered by Marie Curie, was still believed by the public to be harmless to the body. People commonly believed it to even be “healthful” to the body. Radium continued to be sold in 
various products used topically and internally. Consequently, workers employed in jobs, which exposed them to radium, were still unaware of its dangers until 1927, when a lawsuit was filed in court by Grace Fryer, a former radium dialpainter who had first been employed to paint clock dials with radium in 1917.
As dialpainters, the women employed mixed their paints with glue and radium powder and were encouraged to sharpen the tips of their brushes with their lips as they painted the clock dials. The finer brush points helped them paint the fine details, but the practice served as a primary source of radium ingestion. Most ingested radium would have been excreted, but, because radium and calcium have similar chemical properties, a portion of each day’s dose was deposited into the dialpainters’ bones. This deposited source of radiation from radium damages the bone marrow, causing anemia. Radiation also weakens the bones, so that vertebrae and other bones could break under normal pressure. Long bones might spontaneously snap. Radiation could kill bone tissues so that they became infected easily, especialy in the jaw. As radium decays through its radioactive series, it produces radon, a radioactive gas, which is in part exhaled. Radon retained within bone cavities in the skull causes cancers and other ailments. Reports show that the radium powder, which the dialpainters used to mix in their paints also contaminated the whole working area. The benches and even their clothes were speckled in yellow. The women were not aware of the health risks or dangers of radium and thus occasionally painted their finger nails with the paint. One woman was even reported to have painted her teeth as a glow-in-the-dark surprise while out at night.
Grace Fryer worked as a radium dialpainter for three years until she changed jobs in 1920 to work at a bank. Two years later, she began to develop problems with her teeth, and her jaw developed a painful abcess. X-ray photos of her mouth and back showed the development of a serious bone decay. In July 1925, one of the several doctors she visited suggested that her problems may have been caused by her former occupation as a radium dialpainter. After much difficulty, Fryer was able to file a lawsuit against her former employer for radium poisoning. Four other women with severe medical problems who had also worked at the same dialpainting facility quickly joined the lawsuit. They were Edna Hussman, Katherine Schaub, and sisters Quinta McDonald and Albina Larice. The five eventually became known in newspaper articles carried in papers throughout the U.S. and Europe as “the Radium Girls.” They all had similar medical conditions which consisted of anemia, deteriorating bones, loose teeth (which eventually fell out or had to be extracted), and necrosis of the 
jaw bone, which later became known as “radium jaw.” Before their case was settled in court, other radium dialpainters died with the same mysterious symptoms shared by the five radium girls. One of the first known radium associated death was that of Amelia Maggia in 1922, one of five sisters who also worked as radium dialpainters. According to Claudia Clark, 
author of Radium Girls, Women and Industrial Health Reform, 1910-1935, Maggia’s death certificate listed the cause of death as “ulcerative stomatitis”–inflammation and tissue destructoin of the mouth. Syphilis was listed as the cause. However, due to the radium investigation, Maggia’s body was exhumed for the purpose of conducting an autopsy. Her remains were found to be radioactive with evidence of radium depostion in her bones and no evidence of syphilis.
In 1932, Eben M. Byers, Pittsburgh steel manufacturer and sportsman, died in a New York hospital–”the first New York victim,” says The Herald Tribune, “of a nationally advertised ‘radium water,’ and the second known to the American medical profession.”
“Byers, who was fifty-one, began taking ‘Radithor’ more than two years ago on advice of a Pittsburgh physiotherapist,” says the United Press– It had been reported that Byers was feeling a bit under the weather when Radithor, radium water thought to be healthful, was prescribed to him. According to Scientific American in 1993, Byers became “. . . the victim of a mysterious syndrome that for 18 months had ravaged his body, corroding his skeletal system until one by one his bones started to splinter and break.” Scientific American went on to write that when Byers died, he weighed a mere 92 pounds. Once a handsome, robust man, Byers later became disfigured from operations that had removed most of his jaw and part of his skull in an attempt to stop the destruction of bone. His marrow and kidneys had failed. A brain abscess had left him nearly mute, but he remained lucid almost to the end.
Then in 1934, Marie Curie, the discoverer of radium, died of leukemia, which some believe today to have been the result of radium exposure. In her daughter, Eve Curie’s, book Madame Curie, a Biography, Eve writes of her parents, Marie and Pierre that,
“After exposure to the rays (of radium) the skin became red …; it looked like a burn, but was scarcely painful. After several days the red area without enlarging grew redder; on the twentieth day scabs formed and when they fell away the let a deep wound …; healing of the epidermis first began on the forty-second day ….
“… Mme. Curie carried a few centigrams of the very active substance in a sealed tube and received similar burns…. One exposure of less than half an hour … resulted in a red spot for fifteen days later, that took fifteen more days to heal.
“… we have suffered from various changes in our hands during researches…. The skin of the hands scales; the tips of the fingers come into contact with tubes or capsules that contain very active preparations become hard and sometimes extremely painful; one of us had inflamed fingertips for a fortnight, which subsided with scaling, but at the end of two months were still painful.”
Despite the growing awareness of the dangers of x-ray radiation and other radioactive substances, the use of x-rays and radioactive ores such as uranium and polonium continued to be used and studied. In part five, we’ll go back again to what scientists were exploring for the uses of radiation early last century.
Radiation Part 1
Radiation Part 2
Radiation Part 3
Marlakins
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11.03.06
Posted in Anything goes, Health-related--Natural Alternative Treatments, History, Uncategorized at 9:48 am by Administrator
In part three of my posts on radiation, I would like to shift away from the scientific aspects of radiation for a moment and instead look at how the public was receiving the new discovery of x-ray radiation.
After the discovery of x-ray in November of 1895, and the subsequent publication of its discovery, it didn’t take long for the public to incorporate it into society as another advance in modern technology. New discoveries and inventions were eagerly embraced as the U.S. newpaper headlines heralded in mid-January 1896, “NEW LIGHT SEES THROUGH FLESH TO BONES!” “HIDDEN SOLIDS REVEALED!!” Articles such as these were accompanied by line-drawings of Roentgen’s radiographs and detailed diagrams on generation of the rays. Within a week, demonstrations were being set up at colleges, in high schools, and in public venues. In as little as 6 months time, in April 1896, and with virtually little understanding of the properties of x-ray, the x-ray was on it’s way into the lives and homes of Americans. In May 1896, Thomas Edison held public demonstrations of x-rays at the National Electrical Exposition in New York using his “Edison Vitascope Fluoroscopy Unit.” This allowed anyone to have a chance to see his or her own bones. Edison was not alone in his fascination with x-rays and soon x-ray devices were widely available. Special X-ray outfits at low prices meant that anyone could make an “X-ray picture.” Studios opened to take “bone portraits.” Poems about the X-ray appeared in popular journals. The metaphorical use of the rays found them popping up in political cartoons, short stories, and advertising. Private detectives touted the use of Roentgen devices in following unfaithful spouses, and lead underwear was manufactured to foil attempts at peeking with “X-ray glasses.” By the turn of the century, radium was considered to be more valuable than either gold or platinum.
According to an article entitled, The Remarkable Radium “Liquid Sunshine” Fad and it’s Deadly Consequences, “Radium or radon laced water was called ‘liquid sunshine’ because it was believed to be a magical elixir that could promote health and prolong life by rejuvenating effects that provided a host of widespread benefits. Radium was added to toothpaste, hair tonic and candy and incorporated as part of the brand name of numerous items whether they contained it or not.” 
More atomic brand names can be viewed here.
Radioactive drinking water was readily available, along with other products and devices used for an array of ailments such as arthritis, pain, and fatigue, as well as other conditions. Items such as “Radithor” “did” contain radium, as well as many other products such as suppositories, bath salts, lotions, condoms, and more.
Department stores began using x-ray devices by which the feet could be viewed inside shoes. The apparatus to the right is a Shoe-Fitting Fluoroscope (ca. 1930-1940). Written accounts describe these shoe-fitting fluoroscopes as major attractions for children to be able to peer at their feet within their shoes for a mere 5 cents.
Even poems included references to x-rays as a would-be poet wrote,
Not worth your while
That false, sweet smile,
Which o’er your features plays:
Thy heart of steel
I can reveal
By my cathodic rays!
Since it was discovered that radium added to paints glowed in the dark, various items such as watches and clock dials were painted with radium. Many women were employed in painting watches with radium by hand.
Not only was the general public enamoured by the new discovery of x-rays, but the potential uses of x-rays also captured the interest of the medical community. Thomas Edison, although unsuccesful in this endeavor, proposed and set out to work on an x-ray device from which the living brain could be studied. William Randolph Hearst was to be his subject. X-rays were soon used to diagnose fractures and locate bullets. And for a time was also thought to cure many ailments from cancer to ringworm. X-ray was vogue.
My post on radiation part 2 can be viewed here.
My post on radiation part 1 can be viewed here.
Marlakins
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11.02.06
Posted in Anything goes, God, Uncategorized at 12:36 pm by Administrator
In this internet age, it’s so easy to find banter on so many diverse and controversial issues. Some get pretty heated, while others are just plain stupid. Ha! However, I happened to come across an interview of Richard Dawkins by Stephen Colbert. I found this one humorous, but yet a little interesting although not too deep(understandably so do to time constraints). I have to admit that I haven’t read Dawkins’ book, but from his interview, his logic appears pretty flawed to me. Colbert was just plain funny. Check out this video. Hope it gives you a chuckle as it did me.
Stephen Colbert Interviews Richard Dawkins on YouTube
Marlakins 
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11.01.06
Posted in Anything goes, History, Uncategorized at 4:09 pm by Administrator
Hope everyone had a nice Halloween yesterday. I saw the party animals prancing around last night, and even found that Snow White has a nasty habit of smoking. She must not have noticed me watching her light up, but now I know her deep dark secret. . .
So back on track, I’d like to continue with the topic of radiation. Radiation has likely existed since the beginning of creation. So really, the history of radiation mainly deals with the “discovery” of it. Wilhelm Röntgen, a German physicist, March 27, 1845-February 10, 1923, is known to have discovered radiation (or as he called it–x-ray) in 1895. In 1895 he was studying the phenomena accompanying the passage of an electric current through a gas of extremely low pressure. This study involving cathode-ray tubes, lead him to the discovery of different kinds of rays. With his experiments with cathode-ray tubes, he noticed that as the tube began to glow the crystals of barium platino cyanide scattered on the table began to give off light when the tube glowed. Further tests showed that paper, wood, aluminum and some other materials were transparent to these strange rays. Even at a distance of 2 meters, the rays were still penetrating a wooden door. Roentgen believed these rays were invisible electro-magnetic rays, which under certain conditions could stimulate certain materials to fluorescence. He exposed various things to these strange new rays, among them his weight box, a wire coil in a box and many different materials. He found that lead glass is permeable to light but not to these rays, while wood stopped the light, but the rays passed through it. He found that it affected photographic plates, and, since it did not noticeably exhibit any properties of light, such as reflection or refraction, he mistakenly thought the rays were unrelated to light.
Roentgen found that he could see the image of the bones in his hand when he held it between the tube and the screen. He eventually discovered that he could capture such images on film. A subsequent study he performed with these newly discovered rays resulted in the picture to the right, of Rudolph Albert von Kölliker’s hand. It is also said that Roentgen presented an x-ray of his wife’s hand, which impressed the public. However, it’s not clear to me, if the x-rayed hand on the right truly belongs to Rudolph Albert von Kolliker, or Roentgen’s wife. The net seems to have this same picture for the discription of both. Notice the circular dark spot that appears to be a ring. Nevertheless, this discovery enabled man to look inside the human body for the first time. Roentgen called the phenomenon X-radiation, though it also became known as Rontgen radiation. The “x” referred to “unknown.”
In 1896, soon after the discovery of x-ray, Henri Becquerel, a French physicist, 1852-1908, was using naturally fluorescent minerals to study the properties of x-rays. He wanted to know if some glow-in-the-dark crystals he had emitted x-ray. Becquerel gathered crystals of potassium uranyl sulfate that had been exposed to bright sunlight. These crystals have the ability to glow in the dark after they have been exposed to sunlight. He exposed potassium uranyl sulfate to sunlight and then placed it on photographic plates wrapped in black paper. The results of his photographic plates revealed images that were strong and clear, proving that the uranium emitted radiation without an external source of energy such as the sun. Becquerel had discovered radioactivity. But, at this point it was still unknown where the rays came from. From this Becquerel concluded that potassium uranyl sulfate emits some kind of penetrating rays, and caused him to wonder what kind of rays were coming out of the crystals. The crystals constantly gave off energetic rays depsite being melted, dissolved, and recrystallized. Physical radiation units, which measures the activity of the radiation source, became called the “becquerel”(Bq) in an SI unit. A radiation source with an activity of one becquerel has one disintegration per second.
In 1898, Marie Sklodowska Curie, 1867-1934, and her husband, Pierre, 1859-1906 (both scientists in France), discovered another element that seemed to defy the law of energy conservation–polonium and radium. They coined the word “radioactivity” to describe the spontaneous emission of the penetrating rays. It was the Curies who concluded that radioactivity is an atomic property that does not depend on how the atoms are chemically bonded. In 1912, the Curie standard was made. The quantity and unit for radioactivity would be called “Curie” in memory of Pierre Curie. One curie is the number of disintegrations per second in a one-gram sample of radium; one curie is 3.7 x 10^10 becquerel (Bq).
Ernest Rutherford, an English physicist, 1871-1937, is known to have invented the language which is used to describe the concepts of the atom and the phenomenon of radioactivity. It was Rutherford who coined the terms alpha, beta, and gamma rays to classify various forms of “rays” which were poorly understood at his time (alpha and beta rays are particle beams, while gamma rays are a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. He also observed that the intensity of radioactivity fell off with time, and named the halving time the “half-life. Particles named and characterized by him include the alpha particle, beta particle, and proton. It was Rutherford’s research that proposed the atom was “nuclear.”
Ernest Rutherford and Marie Curie were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903. Rutherford received the Nobel Prize in 1908 in chemistry for this discovery of the half-life of radioactivity.
To be continued in the next post on radiation. Toodles!
Marlakins
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