Radioactive

Having read Lauren Redniss' Century Girl and greatly enjoyed it, I was looking forward to the artist and writer's most recent offering, Radioactive.

Radioactive: A Tale of Love and Fallout narrates the life of two of the greatest scientific figures of the twentieth century, Marie and Pierre Curie. Marie Curie discovered the radioactive properties of the chemical elements Radium and Polonium, a discovery that led to the development of radioactivity as an area of scientific study and has had a significant impact on medical advancement - for instance, in Marie Curie's own life time, she saw the development and use of X-Ray facilities during the First World War.

From an artistic perspective, Radioactive differs from Century Girl, particular as it is mostly composed of Redniss' own illustrations (whereas Century Girl featured a great deal more photographic elements). There is something rather touching and intimate though in the hand-drawn quality of the images; and Redniss' employment of colour is particularly effective, using tone and colour to signify the glowing properties of both chemical elements and of the characters themselves.

Most interesting for me from a reader's perspective was the way in which Redniss starts to juxtapose biographical information about the Curies with historical and scientific facts - information about inventions that wouldn't have been possible without the Curies' work: the development of the A-Bomb (and it's impact on Hirsoshima) and Nuclear power (the Chenobyl nuclear explosion, and its after-effects). This, of course, shows up the double meaning of the book's subtitle: A Tale of Love and Fallout. Initially, you think these are from the same semantic field of relationships, but in fact the 'fallout' has a far darker point of reference. The juxtaposition of the Curies' love, faith, and dedication with the devastation caused by nuclear power was, for me, both thought-provoking and affective.

One last thought: I like to read in bed, and so each night I would devour another chapter of Radioactive before turning off the light for sleep. One night when I was about halfway through the book, I completed this same evening ritual. I placed the book on my bedside table, turned off the lamp and snuggled in. To my surprise and slight horror (given the nature of what I'd been reading), I realised the book itself was actually glowing in the dark!