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Toshihiro Higuchi, Life Atomic: A History of Radioisotopes in Science and Medicine, Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, Volume 70, Issue 1, January 2015, Pages 152–154, https://doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/jru010
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In Life Atomic, Angela N. H. Creager offers the first comprehensive account of the radioisotope programs in the United States during their formative period from the early 1930s to the mid-1960s. Instead of focusing on a specific research subject or usage, Creager provides a sweeping overview of radioisotope uses in biological, medical, and environmental sciences. Following the notion of radioisotopes as “historical tracers” (4), Creager explores the complex pathways along which the radioactive particles moved from the sites of production to multiple consuming endpoints in laboratories, fields, and hospitals. In doing so, Life Atomic builds upon and advances the thriving scholarship on the role of instruments in science and medicine. As Creager points out, radioisotopes are among the first tools that made it possible to track molecules as they move and transform in living organisms and their surroundings. While interest in molecules and systems among biologists and ecologists preceded the atomic age, Creager makes a convincing case for the catalytic role of radioisotopes, showing that their abundant supplies after World War II (WWII) consolidated the molecular and systemic vision of life across the board. In explaining the tracer-led epistemic revolution, Life Atomic also tackles a burning question of militarization in postwar American science. Presenting a nuanced picture of radioisotopes as “part of a classic ‘dual-use’ technology,” Creager successfully demonstrates the “blurriness of the civilian–military divide” (19), which turned radioisotopes into a controversial, yet successful, tool of research.
