Vignettes of Early Radiation Workers: Transcripts of the Videotape Series

摘要

An essential part of any radiological health program is an appreciation of the origins and development of the philosophy and techniques that have led to our current understanding of the overall problems. To acquire this understanding for ionizing radiation, the authors are compelled to rely wholly upon the published literature for the contributions of the first three decades--1895 to 1925. Major expansion in our basic knowledge and the development of new procedures of a quantitative nature took place in the next one and one-half to two decades. Working closely with the radiological profession, a total of some thirty scientists represented the whole such effort up until the advent of atomic energy as we know it today. A knowledge and understanding of the role and work of this cadre is an important foundation of any radiological health program. It is hoped that the oncoming generation of radiological physicists and radiobiologists may find some inspiration, first hand, about some of the early problems faced in the application of ionizing radiation in the diagnosis and treatment of disease. To make the material more widely available, transcripts of the videotaped interviews--verbatim, except for very minor editing--are now being made available in this volume.