Hi @wellerstein, @ColdWarScience & anyone else smart, what is the history of the radiation warning sign? Is there a good write-up of it?
I have read something on this; I'll look it up tomorrow. Short version was that it was cooked up by some UC Berkeley physicists in the early nuclear age (it's meant to be an atom radiating). Never really tested out on people. Not at all obvious (children think it is a flower).
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Thanks! I do a riff on nuclear semiotics when I teach Normal Accidents and while it's fun to talk about glow-in-the-dark cats, it occurred to me the history of the rad symbol would be a bit more relatable.
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Aside from the ORAU article (which might have been what I had in mind), this might also be useful, then —https://www.iaea.org/newscenter/news/new-symbol-launched-warn-public-about-radiation-dangers-0 …
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Also of note is the history of the biohazard symbol, which was developed very deliberately by contrast: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1722446
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This seems pretty authoritative: https://www.orau.org/ptp/articlesstories/radwarnsymbstory.htm …
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Excellent! many thanks to all!
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1946 at Berkley. Officially replaced in 2007 withpic.twitter.com/Zf51TvUhDa
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