Changes

So even when a nuclear decay has an associated energy in the thousands (keV) or millions (MeV) of electron volts, we're still billions of factors away from having enough energy to boil a cup of water. The danger is not from a single atomic decay, but from many trillions of atomic decays occurring within rapid succession, in which case we do reach energies capable of producing serious burns on the skin.  

So even when a nuclear decay has an associated energy in the thousands (keV) or millions (MeV) of electron volts, we're still billions of factors away from having enough energy to boil a cup of water. The danger is not from a single atomic decay, but from many trillions of atomic decays occurring within rapid succession, in which case we do reach energies capable of producing serious burns on the skin.  

==Analogy to disease==

==Antiquated notions==

In [[H. G. Wells]]' 1909 novel [[Tono-Bungay]], the narrator muses:

In the early decades of the 20^th century, when it was a newly discovered phenomenon, there was much confusion about it, leading to some strange hypotheses.  No less an intellectual than [[H. G. Wells]] wrote strange things about it.  In his 1909 novel [[Tono-Bungay]], the narrator muses:

:To my mind radio-activity is a real disease of matter. Moreover, it is a contagious disease. It spreads. You bring those debased and crumbling atoms near others and those too presently catch the trick of swinging themselves out of coherent existence. It is in matter exactly what the decay of our old culture is in society, a loss of traditions and distinctions and assured reactions. ...I am haunted by a grotesque fancy of the ultimate eating away and dry-rotting and dispersal of all our world. So that while man still struggles and dreams his very substance will change and crumble from beneath him. I mention this here as a queer persistent fancy. Suppose, indeed, that is to be the end of our planet; no splendid climax and finale, no towering accumulation of achievements, but just—atomic decay!<ref>Wells, H. G. (1909) [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/718/718-h/718-h.htm Tono-Bungay], online Project Gutenberg text; search for text string "real disease"</ref>

:To my mind radio-activity is a real disease of matter. Moreover, it is a contagious disease. It spreads. You bring those debased and crumbling atoms near others and those too presently catch the trick of swinging themselves out of coherent existence. It is in matter exactly what the decay of our old culture is in society, a loss of traditions and distinctions and assured reactions. ...I am haunted by a grotesque fancy of the ultimate eating away and dry-rotting and dispersal of all our world. So that while man still struggles and dreams his very substance will change and crumble from beneath him. I mention this here as a queer persistent fancy. Suppose, indeed, that is to be the end of our planet; no splendid climax and finale, no towering accumulation of achievements, but just—atomic decay!<ref>Wells, H. G. (1909) [http://www.gutenberg.org/files/718/718-h/718-h.htm Tono-Bungay], online Project Gutenberg text; search for text string "real disease"</ref>

=Notes and references==

 

==Notes and references==

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[[Category:Radioactivity]]

[[Category:Radioactivity]]