this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2024
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Science Memes

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Radioactivity (mander.xyz)
submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 12 points 4 months ago (1 children)

They're contaminated, not neutron activated. The curies didn't get to the point of developing an unshielded nuclear reactor that would sufficiently neutron activate their stuff. They just liked to carry around radium and polonium which also have decay products that themselves are radioactive and they contaminated everything.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Thanks for the precision. Still, the result is the same I'm sure.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 4 months ago

More or less. The difference is that, if they really wanted to, they could very thoroughly clean the notebook and take most of the contamination off. I’m guessing they won’t because a) It’s a historical artifact and they don’t want to risk damaging it, b) the contamination is so low-level that it’s not dangerous as long as you don’t lick it or something, and/or c) there’s a bit of a shock factor in watching a scientist’s notebook make a Geiger counter freak out.