Radioactivity Quotes

“Here they go cruising for a fortnight up in parts where everyone is dead of radiation, and all that they can catch is measles!”
― Nevil Shute, On the Beach

“For ten years after the atomic bomb was dropped there was so little public discussion of the bomb or of radioactivity that even the Chugoku Shinbun, the major newspaper of the city where the atomic bomb was dropped, did not have the movable type for 'atomic bomb' or 'radioactivity'. The silence continued so long because the U.S. Army Surgeons Investigation Team in the fall of 1945 had issued a mistaken statement: all people expected to die from the radiation effects of the atomic bomb had by then already died; accordingly, no further cases of physiological effects due to residual radiation would be acknowledged.”
― Kenzaburō Ōe

“As chemists, we must rename [our] scheme and insert the symbols Ba, La, Ce in place of Ra, Ac, Th. As nuclear chemists closely associated with physics, we cannot yet convince ourselves to make this leap, which contradicts all previous experience in nuclear physics.”
― Otto Hahn

“[Concerning] phosphorescent bodies, and in particular to uranium salts whose phosphorescence has a very brief duration. With the double sulfate of uranium and potassium ... I was able to perform the following experiment: One wraps a Lumière photographic plate with a bromide emulsion in two sheets of very thick black paper, such that the plate does not become clouded upon being exposed to the sun for a day. One places on the sheet of paper, on the outside, a slab of the phosphorescent substance, and one exposes the whole to the sun for several hours. When one then develops the photographic plate, one recognizes that the silhouette of the phosphorescent substance appears in black on the negative. If one places between the phosphorescent substance and the paper a piece of money or a metal screen pierced with a cut-out design, one sees the image of these objects appear on the negative. One can repeat the same experiments placing a thin pane of glass between the phosphorescent substance and the paper, which excludes the possibility of chemical action due to vapors which might emanate from the substance when heated by the sun's rays. One must conclude from these experiments that the phosphorescent substance in question emits rays which pass through the opaque paper and reduces silver salts.

[Although the sun is irrelevant, and he misinterprets the role of phosphorescence, he has discovered the effect of radioactivity.]”
― Antoine Henri Becquerel

“Everyone should be very grateful radioactivity exists at all. It can kill you, yes, but without it you wouldn't have been born in the first place. On Earth, deep under your feet, our planet happens to contain many atoms that do decay, all the time. Less so now than in the past, but still, Earth's mantle is radioactive. When atoms decay there, the particles they emit bump into their neighbours and generate heat, the very heat that contributes to keeping our planet warm. Without radioactivity, there would be no seismic or volcanic activity. The surface of the Earth would have been dead cold billions of yeras ago. Life as we know it would probably not exist at all.”
― Christophe Galfard, The Universe in Your Hand: A Journey Through Space, Time, and Beyond

“[T]he probabilistic nature of the Schrödinger equation, which predicts only the likelihood of different experimental outcomes, leaves it offering no reason why one specific outcome is observed instead of another. In effect, it says that quantum events (the radioactive decay of an atom, say) happen for no reason.”
― Philip Ball, Beyond Weird

“The USA government states that the New Mexico Trinity nuclear bomb site is still highly radioactive and 'harmless'. It is interesting to note in the era of Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity (EHS) that it is USA government policy that radio frequency (RF) and electricity are also 'harmless'.”
― Steven Magee

“Nothing to be worried, it is to be understood”
― Madam Curie

“Soused se vrátil k prázdné stodole a napsal na zeď: "Kdyby jen nebyly jaderné elektrárny! Chci umřít." Pak se oběsil na stropním trámu.

Otrávili nás! Okradli nás! Podvedli nás!

Můj dům měl sto šedesát mikrosievertů!
Moje záclony měly sedmdesát mikrosievertů!
Moje postel měla padesát mikrosievertů!
Moje zahrada měla sto osmdesát mikrosievertů!”
― Katarzyna Boni, Ganbare! Warsztaty umierania

“Říká se, že víc než geny záření ničí mezilidské vztahy.”
― Katarzyna Boni, Ganbare! Warsztaty umierania

“It will be found, eventually, that just as impurities in water become radioactive from transmuted uranium, impurities in thought become radioactive from transmuted facts and figures lurking in the pitchblende of the mind. We have long suspected that impurities in thought become radioactive. It is a major problem. Fascism, one of the commonest impurities in human thought, is unquestionably radioactive.”
― E.B. White, The Wild Flag: Editorials from the New Yorker on Federal World Government and Other Matters

“Nukes and Peace

It takes hundreds of years of hard work to build a civilization, and yet with the press of a button we can destroy it all in a day. Let us not press the button my friend. In fact, if we must destroy something let us destroy the very button of destruction, both from outside and inside.

Let us incapacitate every single button of death and destruction, be it technological or psychological, and redirect that energy towards creation and conservation. You see, destroying the nukes mean nothing. Destroy one, another will be built in its place in a matter of months. We have to nuke the hate in us first, so that we no longer feel the need for nukes against our own kind.

However, for the sake of investigation, let us forget the common sense of peace, and talk defense strategy for a moment, in a way that might make sense to world leaders. You see, the best defense against a nuke is not another nuke, but a code. It is the best defense because it is exponentially less expensive.

In a technologically advanced world, the most powerful nation is not the one with nuclear power, but the one with coding power. So, to the so-called leaders of the world I say - if you're still foolishly worried about your neighbor's nuclear capabilities, don't go about wasting billions of dollars on a nuclear program, just spend a fragment of those funds on post-launch warhead hacking.

But then again, it would open up a new realm of problems at a different level, because any nation with exceptional wireless channel manipulation expertise can remotely take over the command of another nation's nuclear warheads. So, at the end of the day, so long as there is animosity among the nations of the world, between mind and mind, sustained by stupid borders and foul ideologies, there is no safe way out.

I'll say it to you plainly. Wasting nuclear power on warheads is a barbaric use of a scientific revolution. Let me elaborate with some numbers.

A single nuclear warhead contains nearly 4 kilograms of Plutonium-239, which in a nuclear power plant can produce sufficient heat to generate about 32 million kilowatt-hours of electricity, that is, 32 Gigawatt-hours (GWh). 1 GWh of electricity powers about 700,000 households for one hour, hence 32 GWh would power about 22.4 million households for one hour. Now, if we divide that number by the number of hours in a year, that is, 8760, we are confronted with an astounding revelation. It is that, the radioactive material from one nuclear warhead can power over two thousand households for a year (2557 to be exact).

And that's just the radioactive material we are talking about. Many more resources are required to set up a nuclear program. The point is, instead of wasting such potent and precious resources on fancy, frivolous and fictitious geopolitical insecurities, let us redirect those resources to alleviate actual, real human suffering from society. Let us use them to empower communities rather than to dominate them - let us use them to elevate the whole of humankind, rather than to downgrade the parts that we do not like. Because by degrading others, we only degrade ourselves, whereas by lifting others, we rise ourselves. Remember, there is no world peace, so long as fear is off the leash.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Either Reformist or Terrorist: If You Are Terror I Am Your Grandfather

“The radioactive material from one nuclear warhead can power over two thousand households for a year. Instead of wasting such potent resources on fancy, frivolous and fictitious geopolitical insecurities, let us redirect those resources to alleviate actual human suffering from society.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Either Reformist or Terrorist: If You Are Terror I Am Your Grandfather

“It takes hundreds of years of hard work to build a civilization, and yet with the press of a button we can destroy it all in a day. Let us not press the button my friend. In fact, if we must destroy something let us destroy the very button of destruction, both from outside and inside.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Either Reformist or Terrorist: If You Are Terror I Am Your Grandfather

“There are no doubts that radioactive fallout has coated the entire world and the southwest USA has a high density of that radioactive coating. Whether you like it or not, some of that radioactivity is inside of your body! Every single human on the surface of the Earth has some level of man made radiation inside of them!”
― Steven Magee, Magee’s Disease

“Humanitarian Nuclear Physics (The Sonnet)

One nuclear warhead contains 9 lbs of plutonium,
Which can electrify 2000 households for a year.
Yet you use that majestic power of atom as pawn,
In your stoneage geopolitical games of fear.

When monkeys crack the mystery of the atom,
Without developing any civilized purpose,
They go blind with the madness of power,
Atom bombs become newage arrows and spears.

Hypnotized by the mindless pursuit of "could",
Apes rarely ever stop to question if they should!
What good is such science without conscience,
What good is a scientist without a vision for good!

Either atom bombs will be obsolete as bow and arrow,
Or humankind will go extinct like dinosaurs tomorrow.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tum Dunya Tek Millet: Greatest Country on Earth is Earth

“One nuclear warhead contains 9 lbs of plutonium,
Which can electrify 2000 households for a year.
Yet you use that majestic power of atom as pawn,
In your stoneage geopolitical games of fear.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tum Dunya Tek Millet: Greatest Country on Earth is Earth