Radioactive Boy Scout: Chapter Summary

For the project we had in Mr. Sanders Physical science class this nine week I choose to read “The Radioactive Boy Scout.” The book was about a boy named David Hahn who grew up in suburban Detroit. David was fascinated by science and while he was working on earning his Atomic Energy badge for boy scouts, David’s attention turned to nuclear energy. He started working on building a nuclear reactor in his backyard garden shed. Working as a physics professor, David solicited information on reactor design from the U.S. Government and from industry experts. David started following blueprints he found an old physics book. David came up with a device that threw off toxic levels of radiation. His unsupervised project eventually sparked an environmental …show more content…
During the days of this book radium was free by the federal government because of a law passed in 1906. This was briefly obscured by the thought that the body defends itself by producing extra red blood cells until radiation when damaged cells outnumber healthy cells. Radium’s only medical use is in cancer treatments. A technique used to be used to kill cancer cells. X rays figured out that external use of radium, led to bad health problems. American newspapers were filled with articles about a group of people who used to work at a U.S. Radium plant in East Orange, New Jersey. These workers were all women and they were dying from radioactive poisoning. The cause for their death was a radio luminescent paint called Undark used for clock dials to make them glow in the dark. The Undark contained thirty thousand pieces of zinc sulfide to one percent radium. Beginning in 1924, dozens of radium painters became ill and …show more content…
She said he amused her more than he made her angry. She began to let David come up and finish her lectures. He loved it so much he asked if he could do another lecture the following week. One time he asked his teacher if he could demonstrate a process for acid base neutralization. David started working in a shed at his house so he could mix up chemicals. David's she was always very hot during the summer and it was always like a freezer during the winter. In the winter he would put on lots of clothes in the winter and he would put on hats cloves and scarfs to keep warm because of Michigan's harsh winter days. David decided to set up a charcoal grill in his workshop for heat but because there were no ventilation systems all the smoke and carbon dioxide drove him out. David decided he would have to shut down his shed until the