Posted on Oct 25, 2002

Robert L. Fleischer,
research professor of geology, is the author of a recent article in the
July-August issue of the American Scientist titled “Serendipitous
Radiation Monitors.” The article describes how ordinary solids that just
happened to be in the right place at the right time have been used to measure
radiation exposures. Two examples are the use of eyeglass lenses to
measure exposures of individuals to the radioactive gas radon, and employing
glass objects from near where the bomb went off at Hiroshima
to find the doses of neutrons. Geology students Steven Hadley, Nick Meyer, and
Jonathan MacDonald were co-workers on these projects.