Answer to Question #1816 Submitted to "Ask the Experts"

Emilo Segre's book From X-rays to Quarks, W.H. Freeman and Company (1980), might be the most appropriate reference. The subtitle, "Modern Physicists and Their Discoveries," sums it up nicely. Another thought would be Understanding Physics by Isaac Asimov—especially volume three, The Electron, Proton and Neutron. The three volumes were published separately and together. Atoms, Radiation, and Radiation Protection, by James E. Turner, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2nd Edition, 1995, Chapter 1, "About Atomic Physics and Radiation," provides a nice overview of important dates in atomic and radiation physics, and important dates and events in the history of radiation protection (health physics).

In Introduction to Health Physics, Third Edition, by Herman Cember, McGraw-Hill, Health Professions Division, New York, NY, 1996, Cember provides a chapter on radiation protection guides that describes the various organizations that set the radiation standards. This chapter provides the historical context for radiation standards, including the basic radiation safety criteria of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP).

Cember also includes an overview on the philosophy of radiation protection. Radiation Protection, Fourth Edition, by Jacob Shapiro, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1990, begins with an "Historical Prologue" several pages in length that spans the creation of radiation from the big bang through the discovery of radiation and development of radiation technology and concluding with the need for radiation protection (health physics). Shapiro also covers a number of radiation accidents that have dotted the history of health physics.

James Turner, PhD, CHP
Eric Abelquist, CHP