Lucy Jane Santos

Lucy Jane Santos is an historian and the author of Half Lives: The Unlikely History of Radium.

How Britain fell in love with radioactive material

For most people today radioactivity is synonymous with bright yellow warning signs, explosions and poison. But there was a time when radioactivity was revered, not feared. And when it seemed like everyone in Britain was clamouring for more of it.  In the late 19th century Wilhelm Röntgen discovered a previously unknown form of powerful radiation