Half Lives

Chemistry World Book Club

This month we’re reading Half Lives: The Unlikely History of Radium by historian Lucy Jane Santos. The book traces the story of a radioactive element, from its ascendance as a cure-all ingredient in the late 19th century to the gradual downfall and eventual discredit of the entire radium industry.

Find out what we thought about the book, and hear from Santos herself as she talks about digging into forgotten history and taking a bath at a modern radioactive spa.