[SPAM][ RadSafe ] RE: What Are Radionuclear Materials?

[Strickert, Rick]

> "Inventing new units and terms seems to be a favorite pasttime 
> for people who have enough time for it."

... for whom there should be plenty of complaints and ridicule if such new units and terms are arbitrarily enforced without a clear consensus and demonstrated usefulness.  But "radionuclear" was not a term the IAEA Glossary invented or enforced.

As for the "SI units" brouhaha there's been plenty of hits on that over the years in many scientific fields, including:

Arthur Adamson, "SI units? A Camel is a Camel," _J. Chem. Ed._, 55(10), October, 1978, pp. 634-637.   Comments and a response followed
in J Chem. Ed., 56(10), Oct. 1979, pp. 665-666.

Jack L. Lambert, "A m^3 is Bigger than a Breadbox," _J. Chem. Ed._,  56(10), October, 1979, p. 638.

Robert A. Nelson, "On Finding a Middle Ground for SI," _J. Chem. Ed._,  56(10), October, 1979, pp. 661-2

P.G. Wright, "An Apologia for Accepting at Least an Approximation to SI," _J.Chem. Ed._ 56(10), October 1979, p.663-5.

John S. Rigden, Editorial: "Are SI units tending towards the ideological?" in _Am. J. Phys._, 52(3), March, 1984, p.205. Responding Letter to the Editor in _Am. J. Phys._, 52(9), Sept., 1984, p.777.
 
Robert Romer, "Units - SI-Only, or Multicultural Diversity?," _Am. J. Phys._,  67(1), January, 1999, p.13-16. Numerous responding Letters to the Editors in _Am. J. Phys._ 67(6), June 1999, pp. 465-70, along with Romer's reply, "'You've Got Mail!'-The SI Jelly Donut" (p. 470).

Charles W. McCutchen, "'SI' Equals System Imbecilic," APS News, October 2001 (Volume 10, Number 9),  http://www.aps.org/publications/apsnews/200110/viewpoint.cfm

G. Anastas, A. Brodsky, and M. Stangler, "Scientific Advantages and Absurdities of SI Units in Radiation Protection," presented at the 48th Annual Meeting of the Health Physics Society, San Diego, July 22, 2003 (abstract in _Health Physics_ Vol.84, No.8(Supplement), p. S241, June 2003).
 
And, of course, Radsafe's 1995 "SI Units" thread (http://radlab.nl/radsafe/archives/9506/threads.html#00202) and the Radsafe-archived "'SI Oops' - A short 3-act play" (30 Sep 1999; http://radlab.nl/radsafe/archives/9909/msg00993.html).


Rick Strickert
Austin, TX