[ RadSafe ] Book review: Plutonium: A History of the World's Most Dangerous Element

[Steven Dapra]

May 4

         Book reviews are not the only place to find hyperbole.  (Good 
reply, Maury -- I had to smile.)

Steven Dapra
sjd at swcp.com


At 11:08 PM 5/3/07 -0500, Maury Siskel wrote:
>I'm crushed! I've been had! After spending all that money on my batch of 
>Pu and it doesn't do any of those things. I'd have thought that if it 
>could not be diabolical, then it surely could have at least been evil. No 
>such luck.  Mine just sits there with an angelic glow. I'm going to try 
>for a refund!!!!
>Best,
>Maury&Dog
>
>==================
>Steven Dapra wrote:
>
>>May 3
>>
>>         I looked for this book on Amazon.  According to a review in 
>> "Booklist," Bernstein's accounts of Pu's discovery "give way to a 
>> sobering overview of the environmental damage caused by 
>> plutonium-producing reactors and the enormous threats embodied in 
>> today's global plutonium inventory. Although convoluted, Bernstein's 
>> unique history of the diabolical element is invaluable."  (review by 
>> Donna Seaman Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved )
>>
>>         "environmental damage"?  "enormous threats"??  "diabolical 
>> element"???  Is any of this true, or is this reviewer resorting to some 
>> deranged form of hyperbole?
>>
>>Steven Dapra
>>sjd at swcp.com
>>
>>At 06:24 AM 5/3/07 -0700, John Jacobus wrote:
>>
>>>This review appears in Nature.
>>>Nature 447, 31-33 (3 May 2007)
>>>The dark heart of the bomb
>-------------------snipped---------------