Radium and the secret of life
By: Luis A. Campos
Publisher: London; The University of Chicago Press
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 378
ISBN-13: 9780226238272
Subjects: Radium; Genetics
Description: Radium and the Secret of Life highlights previously unknown interconnections between the history of the early radioactive sciences and the sciences of heredity. Equating the transmutation of radium with the biological transmutation of living species, biologists saw in metabolism and mutation properties that reminded them of the new element. These initially provocative metaphoric links between radium and life proved remarkably productive and ultimately led to key biological insights into the origin of life, the nature of heredity, and the structure of the gene. Radium and the Secret of Life recovers a forgotten history of the connections between radioactivity and the life sciences that existed long before the dawn of molecular biology.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 339-366) and index.
Table of contents: title: The birth of living radium; title: Radium and the origin of life; title: Radium and the mutation theory; title: Radium genetics; title: The gene irradiated; title: Transmutations and disintegrations.