Download or read book Suffering Made Real written by M. Susan Lindee and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-10-10 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945 unleashed a force as mysterious as it was deadly—radioactivity. In 1946, the United States government created the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC) to serve as a permanent agency in Japan with the official mission of studying the medical effects of radiation on the survivors. The next ten years saw the ABCC's most intensive research on the genetic effects of radiation, and up until 1974 the ABCC scientists published papers on the effects of radiation on aging, life span, fertility, and disease. Suffering Made Real is the first comprehensive history of the ABCC's research on how radiation affected the survivors of the atomic bomb. Arguing that Cold War politics and cultural values fundamentally shaped the work of the ABCC, M. Susan Lindee tells the compelling story of a project that raised disturbing questions about the ethical implications of using human subjects in scientific research. How did the politics of the emerging Cold War affect the scientists' biomedical research and findings? How did the ABCC document and publicly present the effects of radiation? Why did the ABCC refuse to provide medical treatment to the survivors? Through a detailed examination of ABCC policies, archival materials, the minutes of committee meetings, newspaper accounts, and interviews with ABCC scientists, Lindee explores how political and cultural interests were reflected in the day-to-day operations of this controversial research program. Set against a period of conflicting views of nuclear weapons and nuclear power, Suffering Made Real follows the course of a politically charged research program and reveals in detail how politics and cultural values can shape the conduct, results, and uses of science.
Download or read book The Children of Atomic Bomb Survivors written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 1991-02-01 with total page 524 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do persons exposed to radiation suffer genetic effects that threaten their yet-to-be-born children? Researchers are concluding that the genetic risks of radiation are less than previously thought. This finding is explored in this volume about the children of atomic bomb survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasakiâ€"the population that can provide the greatest insight into this critical issue. Assembled here for the first time are papers representing more than 40 years of research. These documents reveal key results related to radiation's effects on pregnancy termination, sex ratio, congenital defects, and early mortality of children. Edited by two of the principal architects of the studies, J. V. Neel and W. J. Schull, the volume also offers an important comparison with studies of the genetic effects of radiation on mice. The wealth of technical details will be immediately useful to geneticists and other specialists. Policymakers will be interested in the overall conclusions and discussion of future studies.
Download or read book Effects of Atomic Radiation written by William J. Schull and published by Wiley-Liss. This book was released on 1995-09-08 with total page 430 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presenting a monumental achievement: 50 years of data cataloging the immediate, long-term, and hereditary effects of atomic radiation on the survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. Authored by one of the key members of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission founded in 1947, this unique work documents the critical findings and conclusions of the longest ongoing medical study in history; it will surely become the foundation for all future investigations and standards regarding the bioeffects of ionizing radiation. "In my opinion, Dr. Schull has written a very interesting and accurate account of the atomic bomb follow-up program in Japan. He writes extremely well, with areas of his particular scientific interest described in great detail. He also describes events and the social implications in a manner that has broad, general appeal." —Stuart C. Finch, MD University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey "A history of the Hiroshima/Nagasaki study is badly needed. I was very happy to hear that Jack Schull was working on such a project, and it is an understatement to say that I am anxious to see it published." —Seymour Jablon, PhD Bethesda, Maryland "Rarely in the history of a program will one have a nearly 50-year account from an eyewitness and major participant, beginning with the program's onset to the present. Jack's book offers the reader this extraordinary insight into the birth and development of the study of the A-bomb survivors. Moreover, he has served on all major national and international commissions dealing with radiation protection and risk assessment and he interweaves the Japanese studies into the radiation risk issues in a way that few, if any, other contemporary scientists can." —Seymour Abrahamson, PhD Radiation Effects Research Foundation On August 6 and 9, 1945, the only atomic bombs ever used in warfare were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The destruction and death caused by those bombings presented the world with a vivid portrait of the dangers of the atomic age. However, the thousands of bomb survivors have given scientists a massive, firsthand perspective on the bioeffects of radioactivity. It is the study of these survivors that forms the foundation of the modern understanding of the immediate, long-term, and hereditary consequences of exposure to ionizing radiation. Effects of Atomic Radiation: A Half-Century of Studies from Hiroshima and Nagasaki is the definitive account of the methods, findings, and conclusions of the 50-year study on the survivors of the atomic bomb blasts. It is a truly monumental work, surveying a colossal body of data to offer a comprehensive, unified, and authoritative summary of not only the scientific study itself, but the personal, social, and political factors that have shaped the investigation from its inception. The book goes beyond the simple compilation of facts, giving the reader unique insight into this unprecedented research project and exploring the complex web of subjective perceptions and fears that color popular, national, and even scientific views of radiation exposure in moderate and extreme cases. Authored by Dr. William J. Schull, perhaps the single most influential scientist involved in the studies, this book conveys both his authority and sensitivity. Dr. Schull arrived in Japan in 1949 and was instrumental in the development of the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission. Since then, he has been one of the driving forces behind the largest medical follow-up study ever undertaken. His years spent working directly with bomb survivors imbue his narrative with a compelling personal history, and his service on numerous national and international committees studying ionizing radiation give him a broad, authoritative perspective on the implications of the ABCC's work. Effects of Atomic Radiation: A Half-Century of Studies from Hiroshima and Nagasaki is first and foremost a scientific work, summarizing the core findings of the definitive study on radiation exposure; while throughout the book, the author provides personal accounts that illustrate the human dimensions of the bombings. In a world where nuclear power is increasing and exposure to radiation is a daily occurrence, this book is essential reading for all scientists associated with public, private, or governmental institutions that set standards of acceptability for exposure.
Download or read book Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation written by Committee to Assess Health Risks from Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2006-03-23 with total page 422 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the seventh in a series of titles from the National Research Council that addresses the effects of exposure to low dose LET (Linear Energy Transfer) ionizing radiation and human health. Updating information previously presented in the 1990 publication, Health Effects of Exposure to Low Levels of Ionizing Radiation: BEIR V, this book draws upon new data in both epidemiologic and experimental research. Ionizing radiation arises from both natural and man-made sources and at very high doses can produce damaging effects in human tissue that can be evident within days after exposure. However, it is the low-dose exposures that are the focus of this book. So-called “late” effects, such as cancer, are produced many years after the initial exposure. This book is among the first of its kind to include detailed risk estimates for cancer incidence in addition to cancer mortality. BEIR VII offers a full review of the available biological, biophysical, and epidemiological literature since the last BEIR report on the subject and develops the most up-to-date and comprehensive risk estimates for cancer and other health effects from exposure to low-level ionizing radiation.
Download or read book The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki written by United States. Army. Corps of Engineers. Manhattan District and published by Prabhat Prakashan. This book was released on 2021-01-01 with total page 74 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The present book is originally a document of detailed expert investigation of the atomic bombing that took place at Hiroshima, Japan, during the final stage of the World War II by the United States. Army. Corps of Engineers. Manhattan District.
Download or read book Children of the Atomic Bomb written by James N. Yamazaki and published by Duke University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Children of the Atomic Bomb is Dr. Yamazaki's account of a lifelong effort to understand and document the impact of nuclear explosions on children, particularly the children conceived but not yet born at the time of the explosions. Assigned in 1949 as Physician in Charge of the United States Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission in Nagasaki, Yamazaki had served as a combat surgeon at the Battle of the Bulge where he had been captured and held as a prisoner of war by the Germans. In Japan he was confronted with violence of another dimension - the devastating impact of a nuclear blast and the particularly insidious effects of radiation on children. Yamazaki's story is also one of striking juxtapositions, an account of a Japanese-American's encounter with racism, the story of a man who fought for his country while his parents were interned in a concentration camp in Arkansas.
Download or read book Restricted Data written by Alex Wellerstein and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2021-04-09 with total page 558 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Nuclear weapons, since their conception, have been the subject of secrecy. In the months after the dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the American scientific establishment, the American government, and the American public all wrestled with what was called the "problem of secrecy," wondering not only whether secrecy was appropriate and effective as a means of controlling this new technology but also whether it was compatible with the country's core values. Out of a messy context of propaganda, confusion, spy scares, and the grave counsel of competing groups of scientists, what historian Alex Wellerstein calls a "new regime of secrecy" was put into place. It was unlike any other previous or since. Nuclear secrets were given their own unique legal designation in American law ("restricted data"), one that operates differently than all other forms of national security classification and exists to this day. Drawing on massive amounts of declassified files, including records released by the government for the first time at the author's request, Restricted Data is a narrative account of nuclear secrecy and the tensions and uncertainty that built as the Cold War continued. In the US, both science and democracy are pitted against nuclear secrecy, and this makes its history uniquely compelling and timely"--
Download or read book Hiroshima Diary written by Michihiko Hachiya, M.D. and published by UNC Press Books. This book was released on 2011-12-01 with total page 267 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The late Dr. Michihiko Hachiya was director of the Hiroshima Communications Hospital when the world's first atomic bomb was dropped on the city. Though his responsibilities in the appalling chaos of a devastated city were awesome, he found time to record the story daily, with compassion and tenderness. His compelling diary was originally published by the UNC Press in 1955, with the help of Dr. Warner Wells of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who was a surgical consultant to the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission and who became a friend of Dr. Hachiya. In a new foreword, John Dower reflects on the enduring importance of the diary fifty years after the bombing.
Download or read book Cancer in Atomic Bomb Survivors written by I. Shigematsu and published by Springer. This book was released on 1986-09-30 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Follow-up studies of persons exposed to medical radiation have long shown that radiation induces cancer in man. This, coupled with increasing exposure from other sources including occupational and environmental radiations, has resulted in greater recognition of the importance of research on radiation-induced carcinogenesis and risk assessment with a view to radiation protection. One of the well-known late effects of radiation is the increased incidence of leukemia that occurred among atomic bomb survivors beginning two or three years after expo sure. A remarkable increase of solid tumors including cancers of the thyroid, breast and lung was also observed 10 to 20 years after exposure. Thus, many pathological, clinical and epidemiological studies have been made on radiation carcinogenesis in atomic bomb survivors by investigators at the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission (ABCC), now known as the Radiation Effects Research Foundation (RERF), as well as by the staff of universities in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Some of the mechanisms involved in radia tion carcinogenesis in man and associated modifying factors, such as age at time of ex posure and sex, have been elucidated by these studies. The results obtained are being used by such agencies as the International Commission on Radiation Protection (ICRP) for risk estimations of radiation exposure. This monograph presents the results realized thus far in these epidemiological and The incidence of radiation-induced cancer among atomic bomb pathological studies.
Download or read book Hiroshima written by John Hersey and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2020-06-23 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hiroshima is the story of six people—a clerk, a widowed seamstress, a physician, a Methodist minister, a young surgeon, and a German Catholic priest—who lived through the greatest single manmade disaster in history. In vivid and indelible prose, Pulitzer Prize–winner John Hersey traces the stories of these half-dozen individuals from 8:15 a.m. on August 6, 1945, when Hiroshima was destroyed by the first atomic bomb ever dropped on a city, through the hours and days that followed. Almost four decades after the original publication of this celebrated book, Hersey went back to Hiroshima in search of the people whose stories he had told, and his account of what he discovered is now the eloquent and moving final chapter of Hiroshima.
Download or read book Fallout written by Lesley M.M. Blume and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-08-04 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A NEW YORK TIMES NOTABLE BOOK OF 2020 New York Times bestselling author Lesley M.M. Blume reveals how one courageous American reporter uncovered one of the deadliest cover-ups of the 20th century—the true effects of the atom bomb—potentially saving millions of lives. Just days after the United States decimated Hiroshima and Nagasaki with nuclear bombs, the Japanese surrendered unconditionally. But even before the surrender, the US government and military had begun a secret propaganda and information suppression campaign to hide the devastating nature of these experimental weapons. The cover-up intensified as Occupation forces closed the atomic cities to Allied reporters, preventing leaks about the horrific long-term effects of radiation which would kill thousands during the months after the blast. For nearly a year the cover-up worked—until New Yorker journalist John Hersey got into Hiroshima and managed to report the truth to the world. As Hersey and his editors prepared his article for publication, they kept the story secret—even from most of their New Yorker colleagues. When the magazine published “Hiroshima” in August 1946, it became an instant global sensation, and inspired pervasive horror about the hellish new threat that America had unleashed. Since 1945, no nuclear weapons have ever been deployed in war partly because Hersey alerted the world to their true, devastating impact. This knowledge has remained among the greatest deterrents to using them since the end of World War II. Released on the 75th anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing, Fallout is an engrossing detective story, as well as an important piece of hidden history that shows how one heroic scoop saved—and can still save—the world.
Download or read book The Making of the Atomic Bomb written by Richard Rhodes and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-09-18 with total page 890 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: **Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the National Book Critics Circle Award** The definitive history of nuclear weapons—from the turn-of-the-century discovery of nuclear energy to J. Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project—this epic work details the science, the people, and the sociopolitical realities that led to the development of the atomic bomb. This sweeping account begins in the 19th century, with the discovery of nuclear fission, and continues to World War Two and the Americans’ race to beat Hitler’s Nazis. That competition launched the Manhattan Project and the nearly overnight construction of a vast military-industrial complex that culminated in the fateful dropping of the first bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Reading like a character-driven suspense novel, the book introduces the players in this saga of physics, politics, and human psychology—from FDR and Einstein to the visionary scientists who pioneered quantum theory and the application of thermonuclear fission, including Planck, Szilard, Bohr, Oppenheimer, Fermi, Teller, Meitner, von Neumann, and Lawrence. From nuclear power’s earliest foreshadowing in the work of H.G. Wells to the bright glare of Trinity at Alamogordo and the arms race of the Cold War, this dread invention forever changed the course of human history, and The Making of The Atomic Bomb provides a panoramic backdrop for that story. Richard Rhodes’s ability to craft compelling biographical portraits is matched only by his rigorous scholarship. Told in rich human, political, and scientific detail that any reader can follow, The Making of the Atomic Bomb is a thought-provoking and masterful work.
Download or read book Prompt and Utter Destruction written by J. Samuel Walker and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2016 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Enola Gay and the Court of History written by Robert P. Newman and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2004 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this hard-hitting, thoroughly researched, and crisply argued book, award-winning historian Robert P. Newman offers a fresh perspective on the dispute over President Truman's decision to drop the atomic bomb on Japan in World War II. Newman's argument centers on the controversy that erupted around the National Air and Space Museum's (NASM) exhibit of Enola Gay in 1995. Newman explores the tremendous challenges that NASM faced when trying to construct a narrative that would satisfy American veterans and the Japanese, as well as accurately reflect the current historical research on both the period and the bomb. His full-scale investigation of the historical dispute results in a compelling story of how and why our views about the bombing of Japan have evolved since its occurrence. Enola Gay and the Court of History is compulsory reading for all those interested in the history of the Pacific war, the morality of war, and the failed NASM exhibition. The book offers the final word on the debate over Truman's decision to drop the bomb.
Download or read book Life Atomic written by Angela N. H. Creager and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2013-10-02 with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: After World War II, the US Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) began mass-producing radioisotopes, sending out nearly 64,000 shipments of radioactive materials to scientists and physicians by 1955. Even as the atomic bomb became the focus of Cold War anxiety, radioisotopes represented the government’s efforts to harness the power of the atom for peace—advancing medicine, domestic energy, and foreign relations. In Life Atomic, Angela N. H. Creager tells the story of how these radioisotopes, which were simultaneously scientific tools and political icons, transformed biomedicine and ecology. Government-produced radioisotopes provided physicians with new tools for diagnosis and therapy, specifically cancer therapy, and enabled biologists to trace molecular transformations. Yet the government’s attempt to present radioisotopes as marvelous dividends of the atomic age was undercut in the 1950s by the fallout debates, as scientists and citizens recognized the hazards of low-level radiation. Creager reveals that growing consciousness of the danger of radioactivity did not reduce the demand for radioisotopes at hospitals and laboratories, but it did change their popular representation from a therapeutic agent to an environmental poison. She then demonstrates how, by the late twentieth century, public fear of radioactivity overshadowed any appreciation of the positive consequences of the AEC’s provision of radioisotopes for research and medicine.
Download or read book Medical Effects of the Atomic Bomb in Japan written by Ashley W. Oughterson and published by . This book was released on 1956 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2009-07-29 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Scores of talented and dedicated people serve the forensic science community, performing vitally important work. However, they are often constrained by lack of adequate resources, sound policies, and national support. It is clear that change and advancements, both systematic and scientific, are needed in a number of forensic science disciplines to ensure the reliability of work, establish enforceable standards, and promote best practices with consistent application. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward provides a detailed plan for addressing these needs and suggests the creation of a new government entity, the National Institute of Forensic Science, to establish and enforce standards within the forensic science community. The benefits of improving and regulating the forensic science disciplines are clear: assisting law enforcement officials, enhancing homeland security, and reducing the risk of wrongful conviction and exoneration. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States gives a full account of what is needed to advance the forensic science disciplines, including upgrading of systems and organizational structures, better training, widespread adoption of uniform and enforceable best practices, and mandatory certification and accreditation programs. While this book provides an essential call-to-action for congress and policy makers, it also serves as a vital tool for law enforcement agencies, criminal prosecutors and attorneys, and forensic science educators.
