What is the main message of Strange Glow?

The main message of Strange Glow is that radiation is both dangerous and pervasive in our modern world.

How long does it take to read Strange Glow?

The estimated reading time for Strange Glow varies depending on the reader's speed. However, the Blinkist summary can be read in just 15 minutes.

Who is the author of Strange Glow?

The author of Strange Glow is Timothy J. Jorgensen.

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Strange Glow Book Summary - Strange Glow Book explained in key points

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Strange Glow summary

Name: Strange Glow
Rating: 4.7 (220 reviews)
Author: Timothy J. Jorgensen

Timothy J. Jorgensen

"The Story of Radiation – How the New Science of the Human Body Is Changing the Way We Live"

4.7 (220 ratings)

25 mins

Brief summary

Strange Glow by Timothy J. Jorgensen is a fascinating study of radiation and its effects on the human body, from the discovery of radiation to modern-day uses and accidents.

Topics

Physics Natural Sciences Nuclear Physics

Table of Contents

Strange Glow
Summary of 6 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 6

What’s in it for me? Busting the myths and confronting fears around radiation to make better choices.

Radiation, like mythical beasts of old, gets a bad rap mostly by virtue of being invisible. In the human psyche, what cannot be seen is often more terrifying than clearly visible threats.

“But what about those mushroom clouds and nuclear winters I’ve heard so much about? Those certainly aren’t mythical!” Like electricity before it, the harnessing of enormous power sources in the 19th and 20th centuries has unleashed some truly horrific consequences. Some things you can’t just un-see.

But once irrational fears or existential dread are at play, it can be hard to judge the magnitude of any risk. Perhaps worse, the general level of fear and ignorance around the topic of radiation has also left some real risks unacknowledged. Believe it or not, radiation’s usefulness in medicine has led to a doubling of background radiation exposure in the United States since 1980. Many other countries have seen similar rises.

In this Blink, we’ll tackle some basic science of radiation in layman's terms, including the discovery of particle, or nuclear, radiation and its many uses. Spoiler alert: instead of dry, dusty science it’s full of curiosity and wonder. We’ll chart a course through revolutionary medical treatments that save countless lives each year. To the rise of nuclear fission and fusion, and yes, even atomic bombs and thermonuclear weapons.

Along the way, we’ll encounter some of the pioneers of broadcasting, medicine and physics, and meet both innocent and not-so-innocent victims of early radiation science. Revealing how some lived long and healthy lives, while others did not, can help all of us understand the real costs and benefits of nuclear science.

In these blinks, you’ll learn

How an accident with charged electrons made radio possible
What ram testicles taught us about cancer treatment
How even scientists sometimes see things that aren’t there, because they really, really want them to be true

The start of playing with radiation

“I’ve seen the light!” It’s such a simple expression, but it reveals much about the near mystical importance of light for humans. From sunsets to sparkles on the water, light and its refracted parts, –also known as colours– cause delight. These light rays? They’re radiation. In fact, it’s the radiation you can see with your naked eyes, because it excites special molecules in your retina. This visible light falls in the middle of the energy spectrum, sandwiched between Infrared energy below, and Ultraviolet above.

Light, like all radiation, is energy on the move, and it moves in waves. From the longest, or radio waves, at the bottom of the spectrum, to the shortest, or gamma rays, at the top, all are just energy moving through space. Thanks to Einstein, we know that all electromagnetic radiation travels at a constant speed: the speed of light. But like waves on the ocean, the crests of each wave can be closer together or farther apart. Short, frequent waves carry more energy at the same speed, while slow, rolling waves carry less.

Electricity, too, is energy on the move. While we harness it now for almost everything, before the 19th century it was a destructive force of nature, lightning started fires and could kill in an instant. When electricity was first introduced to homes for electric light, it was seen as incredibly dangerous. More dangerous, ironically, than the gas lamps and candles that regularly burned down houses.

The discovery and early transmission of radio waves, however, didn’t generate the same fear, even though it was linked to electricity.

As a young man of 20, radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi discovered the work of Heinrich Hertz, who had detected radio waves in his laboratory back in 1888. The discovery went almost unnoticed by the world, but when Hertz died in 1894, Marconi saw the discovery lauded in the press, and immediately understood its potential. Marconi jumped in and began exploring the possibility of using long wavelength electromagnetic, or radio, waves to transmit messages wirelessly.

But it was another discovery in 1891 by the French Scientist Édouard Branly, that opened the door to radio communications. Imagine the scene: playing around in his lab with electric sparks one day, Branly notices that the sparks of electricity made some metal fillings sealed in a nearby glass tube jump up and line up from end to end. Once the electricity stops, a quick tap on the tube makes them crumble into a pile again. Some strange force made them defy gravity and organise themselves into a line! But what? The force is so strong it works even if the spark is on the other end of the room.

Soon, any scientist with a sealed tube of metal filings is trying it out. Even better, they discover that by placing a bell right next to the tube, the filings could move the glass and tap the bell as they jumped up. It wasn’t long before scientists were blowing their friends’ minds by ringing a bell with a spark from another room and showing that energy can transmit through seemingly empty space.

Marconi saw the potential to use electrical energy to transmit waves further and further. On December 12, 1901, he successfully transmitted a signal from Poldhu, England to St. John's, Canada. Decades later, most homes had a radio receiver.

Oddly enough, through this process, Marconi and his team never worried about the potential dangers of radio wave exposure even knowing energy waves could be dangerous. The electricity they used terrified them, but the radio waves never did. Looking back, Marconi himself realised this was short sighted, but history proved him right.

Why? It's all about wavelength, which we’ll get into next.

Wavelength is the key

It’s Christmas Day, 1895. In Germany, professor Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen feels troubled. Days earlier he made a revolutionary discovery, but it was so disturbing, he hoped it might be a mistake. His discovery? He found that invisible rays could pass through solid objects. Even seeing it with his own eyes he had his doubts.

Little did he, nor any other scientist at the time, know about the work of Hermann von Helmholtz, another German scientist. In 1893 Helmholtz had predicted that, if there were rays with wavelengths shorter than visible light, those rays could pass through matter. If Roentgen had known that, he might have relaxed a bit and enjoyed his holiday.

A cautious approach pays off

Luckily for Roentgen, he had protected himself from these unknown rays early on. Perhaps because he was a cautious man, or perhaps because the image of bones on a fluorescent screen seemed like an omen of death. Still, not everyone was so cautious.

American inventor and businessman Thomas Edison was quick to pursue X-ray experiments in his own commercial laboratory. Edison’s involvement in bringing electric light to households had been both ruthless and cruel. But it put him at the forefront of innovation. Sadly, it was the experiments with these new waves that showed how dangerous X-ray exposure can be. Edison’s assistant, Clarence Dally, had volunteered to have his hands bombarded with X-Rays again and again to show how X-rays worked. Hand ulcers showed him how high exposure could burn the skin. But these ulcers grew cancerous, and spread from his hands, up the arms and to his chest, and eventually caused his death.

Radiation is everywhere—and so are the risks

The discovery of new wavelengths of energy happened at the same time as other discoveries. In France, scientist Antoine Becquerel was fascinated by Roentgen’s experiments, but more drawn to fluorescence, or light-emitting chemicals. He also loved photography, and wanted to capture fluorescence on film like light. So, he sealed films in dark covers and sprinkled them with minerals coated in fluorescent chemicals. He thought fluorescence was like X-rays and could pass through the covering and expose the film.

Sadly for him, none of his fluorescence experiments worked out until he tried the mineral Uranium. Without exposure to light, but WITH exposure to uranium, the photographic films were exposed and showed an image even without light. Oddly enough, the uranium hadn’t been treated with fluorescent chemicals at all—it seemed to emit an as-yet-undiscovered kind of ray. In 1903, he shared the Nobel Prize for this discovery with the famed scientific team, Marie and Pierre Curie.

The introduction of nuclear radiation to medicine.

Fun fact: until the 1890s you were as likely to be killed by medicine as you were by any disease. Doctors injected mercury or used bloodletting regularly, and killed patients in the process.

Perhaps no one saw both the benefits and risks of the new nuclear science for medicine as clearly as Chicago physician Emil Herman Grubbe. At only 7, Grubbe was brought along to Edison’s new light bulb demonstration at the McVicker Theatre. At 20, he was working for a lightbulb manufacturer. His company wanted to make special scientific equipment, called Crookes tubes, for commercial sale. These small glass and metal instruments could send streams of electrons through the air, and Grubbe’s work life involved countless experiments with them. He considered his burned and blistered hands from the X-rays they emit to be the cost of discovery.

The effects of Hiroshima

It’s a warm morning on August 6, 1945, and Dr. Terufumi Sasaki is settling into a day’s work at the Red Cross Hospital, just outside the city centre in Hiroshima, Japan. By 8:15, he’s heading down the hallway to deliver a patient’s blood specimen to the lab. Suddenly, he sees a bright flash of light.

An atomic bomb just detonated at the center of Hiroshima. At ground zero, the temperature was hotter than the surface of the sun. Heat from the bomb ignites fires, which engulf about 4 square miles of the city center. The blast radius was circular, just under a mile across.

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What is Strange Glow about?

Strange Glow: The Story of Radiation Is a sweeping account of the rise of nuclear science, tackling some of the biggest myths and realities surrounding radiation. Debunking some safety myths while carefully documenting real risks, it is also an urgent call for society to confront their fears and in doing so, make better choices in everything from medical procedures to nuclear power.

Strange Glow Review

Strange Glow by Timothy J. Jorgensen (2016) explores the fascinating history and science behind radiation, revealing its impact on our lives. Here's why this book is worth reading:

With meticulous research and accessible language, Jorgensen demystifies the complex world of radiation, making it understandable for all readers.
The book provides engaging anecdotes and real-life examples, painting a vivid picture of the profound effects radiation has had on society.
Jorgensen's careful analysis of the risks and benefits of radiation gives readers a nuanced understanding of this powerful force, dispelling myths and promoting informed decision-making.

Who should read Strange Glow?

Those looking for a deeper understanding of the universe
Anyone nervous about the radiation surrounding them
Anyone wanting to make more informed decisions about medical treatment or health

About the Author

Timothy J. Jorgensen is a professor of radiation medicine and Director of the Health Physics Graduate program at Georgetown University. He is also the author of Spark: The Life of Electricity and the Electricity of LIfe.

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