Summary

The prologue, “Paris, France, 1901,” described that a scientist received a small amount of radium from the Curies for lectures. He forgot about the small vial in his jacket pocket, only remembering its presence when he developed a painful flesh burn on the pertinent area on his chest. Chapter 1, titled “Newark, New Jersey, United States of America, 1917,” began Part 1, “Knowledge,” with a description of Katherine Schaub, an ambitious fourteen-year-old girl who secured herself a position painting dials at the Radium Luminous Materials Corporation. Her allure to the job partly stemmed from the nationwide interest in radium and its uses. Not only did radium literally glow, it also had a reputation as a wonder drug after the discovery of its ability to kill cancer cells. Although it was advertised as being a part of many commercial products including clothing and cosmetics, radium was “too...