Strange Glow: The Story of Radiation.
Strange Glow: The Story of Radiation.
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奇怪的光芒：辐射的故事。
DOI：
10.1093/rpd/ncw278
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发表时间：
2016
影响因子：
1
通讯作者：
R. Alexakhin
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
R. Alexakhin
传统上，可以通过描述现象和过程的数据汇编来描述某一知识领域的基础知识，揭示规律性并制定一般性判断和假设。 《奇异的光芒：辐射的故事》一书的作者选择了另一种原创但有趣且直接的讲故事方式，没有科学术语，以达到尽可能广泛的读者群体的目的，无论他们的技术背景如何。他通过描述和分析历史上既定的事实以及实际创造历史的人（包括一些诺贝尔奖获得者）的角色，全面描绘了人类知识的复杂分支，其中包括放射性和人类健康等主题。这个时代不仅涵盖了从19世纪末开始的时期（导致了放射性领域的首次发现，从而使人类文明发展到了今天的核阶段），而且还涵盖了更古老的历史时期，其中出现了杰出的科学发现。作者对本书的介绍模式使得学生和年轻专家以及有或没有解决辐射安全问题经验的人都对这本书感兴趣。这本书由序言和第一章“核美洲虎”组成，以及三个部分（每个部分有几个章节），即第一部分：“辐射 101”；基础知识”，第二部分：“辐射对健康的影响”和第三部分：“权衡辐射的风险和益处”，以及致谢、注释和引文、参考书目和索引。在序言和第一章中，在证明他对这本书的介绍和推测内容的同时，强调大多数人对电离辐射的生物效应仍然坚持态度的根源是恐惧。在此，作者引用了凯撒大帝的名言“一般来说，人们更担心他们看不到的东西，而不是他们能看到的东西。”同时，现代社会的发展趋势清楚地表明电离辐射源的应用规模不断扩大，尤其是在医学领域，这必然增加公众的暴露程度。值得注意的是，目前在大多数国家，人为电离辐射对人口造成的剂量已经超过了自然辐射本底。第一部分（第2-4章）讲述了与伦琴发现X射线相关的原子结构发现的故事，卢瑟福对原子结构的详细描述，贝克勒尔对铀放射性衰变现象的建立，居里夫人关于发现和鉴定铀放射性衰变现象的实验。新放射性元素的发现、中子的探测和铀裂变第一反应的实施以及费米第一核反应堆的建造。在20世纪的前几十年，放射性对人类的影响问题只涉及一小部分人（主要是研究人员），这成为随后几年人们越来越关注辐射对大量人群的影响问题的前奏，并最终影响到整个人类，当时放射源的数量迅速增加，地球生物圈的放射性污染（核试验后）已达到全球范围。第一部分成功地基本关注了剂量测定的重要作用以及本书以下各节将讨论的不同类型辐射暴露的影响。第二部分（第 5-11 章）讨论辐射对人类健康的影响以及……的不同情况。
Fundamentals of a certain field of knowledge may be described traditionally by giving compilation of data that describe phenomena and processes, reveal regularities and formulate generalized judgments and hypotheses. The author of the book,‘Strange Glow: The Story of Radiation’, has chosen another original but interesting and a straightforward way of storytelling, devoid of scientific jargon, to achieve the aim of reaching the widest possible audience of readers, regardless to their technical background. He gave a complete picture of a complex branch of human knowledge, which embraces topics such as radioactivity and human health by describing and analyzing the historically established facts and the roles of persons (including some Nobel Prize winners) who actually made the history. This era covers a period not only from the end of the 19th century (leading to the first discoveries in the field of radioactivity which gave rise to a nuclear stage in the development of civilization down to our days) but also the contexts of much older periods of history, which saw outstanding scientific discoveries. The author’s model of presentation of the book makes it of equal interest to both students and young specialists and also to people with and without experience in solving problems of the radiation safety. The book consists of an opening preface and Chapter 1 on ‘Nuclear Jaguars’, and three parts (each with several chapters) viz Part I:‘Radiation 101; The Basics’, Part II:‘The Health Effects of Radiation’and Part III:‘Weighing the Risks and Benefits of Radiation’, in addition to Acknowledgments, Notes and Citations, Bibliography and Index. In the preface and Chapter 1, while justifying his presentation of the book and surmising the contents, it is stressed that at the root of a still-persisting attitude of most of the population to the biological effects of ionizing radiation is fear. In this case, the author cites the famous saying of Julius Caesar ‘As a rule, men worry more about what they can’t see than about they can.’At the same time, the trends of modern society development clearly speak of the ever-growing scales of the application of sources of ionizing radiation, most remarkably in medicine, which necessarily increases exposure of the public. It is worth noting that in most countries dose to population from anthropogenic sources of ionizing radiation has currently exceeded the natural radiation background.Part I (Chapters 2–4) narrates the stories related to the discoveries of atomic structure associated with the discovery of X-rays by WC Roentgen, a detailed description of atomic structure by E. Rutherford, the establishment of the phenomenon of radioactive decay of uranium by A. Becquerel, experiments of M. Curie on the discovery and identification of new radioactive elements, detection of neutrons and implementation of the first reaction of uranium fission and construction of the first nuclear reactor of E. Fermi. In the first decades of the 20th century, issues of radioactivity effects on humans concerned only a small cohort (mainly researchers), which became a prelude to the growing attention in subsequent years to the problems of radiation effects on very large groups of people, and ultimately on the whole of humanity, when the number of radioactive sources has rapidly increased and the radioactive contamination (following nuclear tests) of the Earth’s biosphere has acquired global size. Part I has succeeded in drawing the basic focus on the important role of dosimetry and the effect of exposure to different types of radiation to be taken up in the following sections of the book. Part II (Chapters 5–11) deals with the effects of radiation on human health and different situations of …