It's always puzzled me why radioactivity is always associated with reactors and bombs.
Natural radium is radioactive and has a billion year class half-life. It's more toxic than Plutonium-239 (e.g. the stuff they make thermonuclear devices with) and it's estimated that there are about 15,000 tons of it dissolved in all the oceans... What this means is that sea salt contains radioactive radium.... a substance that is more toxic than the dreaded plutonium...
If we want to talk "radioactivity" then this is the kind of thing we need to be talking about, not stupid stories about teenagers playing around with breeder reactor technologies.
This is a good read for anyone who's ever wondered how hard it would be to gather a complete collection of the elements that make up the periodic table.
It's really a shame that this kid couldn't get competent adult supervision. With some structure in his life, things might have turned out differently for him.
His social engineering skills were quite impressive... although his habitual lying does make him seem like a psychopath.
All in all, very cool, and very sad. At least he didn't get sent to prison.
To me, this illustrates a breakdown of our education system.
Why was this kid not noticed, and nurtured? Not to play the nerd card here, but I can almost guarantee that if he had had an exceptionally good throwing arm (instead of an affinity for chemistry), his school would have noticed and would have helped him develop.
Maybe I'm just bitter because I grew up in a small town and saw this happening all around me. This story reminds me a lot of a very close friend of mine that used to manufacture all kinds of different chemicals in his garage, used some of the same social-engineering skills to obtain the necessary equipment to do so (accurate scales was always a problem because people though he was making meth), and was completely and totally ignored by his school.
It's depressing; excelling physically seems to be more important than excelling mentally.
Where does that leave us?
Linus Pauling developed an interest in chemistry by experimenting incessantly throughout his childhood. Today, he would have been imprisoned. The new generation will have no Linus Pauling, unless the Third World - where one might still purchase a beaker without a license - supplies us with one.
The legal thing to do was to sit and vegetate in front of a TV set. Or beat smaller kids senseless. Or any of the other socially approved, mindless activities open to children today. He chose to be a free spirit, and paid the price.
The point is, he endangered his neighbors. I'm sort of ambivalent about the story. Should society let people build reactors? Sure. Should it let them build reactors in an unshielded toolshed in a residential area? Hell no, but it's still sort of awesome when it happens. And I'm not sure if it's really more dangerous (from a societal perspective) than owning a car.
Public schools only provide coaching for a tiny handful of sports. If you excel in any other physical activity then you're just as SOL as if you excel in any one of academic areas the school doesn't cover.
20 comments
[ 0.19 ms ] story [ 43.3 ms ] threadNatural radium is radioactive and has a billion year class half-life. It's more toxic than Plutonium-239 (e.g. the stuff they make thermonuclear devices with) and it's estimated that there are about 15,000 tons of it dissolved in all the oceans... What this means is that sea salt contains radioactive radium.... a substance that is more toxic than the dreaded plutonium...
If we want to talk "radioactivity" then this is the kind of thing we need to be talking about, not stupid stories about teenagers playing around with breeder reactor technologies.
What a shame. In the right environment, he could have done great things with his talent.
http://www.damninteresting.com/?p=340
His social engineering skills were quite impressive... although his habitual lying does make him seem like a psychopath.
All in all, very cool, and very sad. At least he didn't get sent to prison.
Why was this kid not noticed, and nurtured? Not to play the nerd card here, but I can almost guarantee that if he had had an exceptionally good throwing arm (instead of an affinity for chemistry), his school would have noticed and would have helped him develop.
Maybe I'm just bitter because I grew up in a small town and saw this happening all around me. This story reminds me a lot of a very close friend of mine that used to manufacture all kinds of different chemicals in his garage, used some of the same social-engineering skills to obtain the necessary equipment to do so (accurate scales was always a problem because people though he was making meth), and was completely and totally ignored by his school.
It's depressing; excelling physically seems to be more important than excelling mentally. Where does that leave us?
It leaves us here:
http://memepunks.blogspot.com/2006/06/americas-war-on-scienc...
and ultimately, here:
http://yarchive.net/physics/effete.html
Linus Pauling developed an interest in chemistry by experimenting incessantly throughout his childhood. Today, he would have been imprisoned. The new generation will have no Linus Pauling, unless the Third World - where one might still purchase a beaker without a license - supplies us with one.
The legal thing to do was to sit and vegetate in front of a TV set. Or beat smaller kids senseless. Or any of the other socially approved, mindless activities open to children today. He chose to be a free spirit, and paid the price.
http://carlwillis.wordpress.com/2008/02/20/uranium-chemistry...