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  • Published: 15 October 2013
  • ISBN: 9780307950208
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $36.00
Categories:

Radiation

What It Is, What You Need to Know




A clarifying, fascinating, urgently needed book on radiation--what it is, what should and shouldn't concern us about it, and what place radiation and radiation-related technologies have in our world.

The universe was born in a nuclear explosion. We live on a radioactive planet. Without radiation there would be not life. And yet radiation remains deeply misunderstood and often mistakenly feared. Now Dr. Robert Peter Gale—one of the world’s leading experts on the subject—and Eric Lax set the record straight about subjects like uranium, plutonium, iodine-131, X-Rays, CT scans, and the radiation of food, while lucidly debunking myths about radioactivity. In this fascinating book, the authors explore the science, benefits, and risks of radiation exposure, drawing on the most up-to-date research and Gale’s extensive experience treating victims of radiation accidents around the globe. Here is an illuminating and essential guide to our post-Chernobyl, post-Fukushima world.

  • Published: 15 October 2013
  • ISBN: 9780307950208
  • Imprint: Knopf US
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 288
  • RRP: $36.00
Categories:

About the authors

Eric Lax

Eric Lax was born in British Columbia in 1944 and grew up near San Diego. After graduating from Hobart College, he spent five years as Peace Corps volunteer and staff member. He is the author of On Being Funny: Woody Allen and Comedy and Life and Death on 10 West. His articles have appeared in The Atlantic, the New York Times Magazine, Life and Esquire, where he was a contributing editor. He lives in Beverly Hills with his wife, Karen, and their two sons.

Praise for Radiation

  • "Eric Lax [and Robert] Gale weigh up the risks and benefits of industrial, medical and natural radiation clearly, logically and with ample science. But it is Gale's phenomenal frontline experience that gives this book edge." --Nature
  • "A well-written extension of the reach of reason in an area fraught with phobia and hysteria." --Kirkus Reviews