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1the diagnosis of disease, broken
bones, and other physical conditions using x rays or other imaging techniques
2the branch of biology dealing
with the functions and activities of living organisms and their parts
3the normal rhythmical contraction
of the heart, during which the blood in the chambers is forced onward
4the normal rhythmical dilatation
of the heart, during which the chambers are filling with blood
5the treatment of disease, broken
bones, and other physical conditions, using x rays or other radiological
techniques
6x-ray machines operating at 200
kilovolts (1 kilovolt = 1,000 volts) for therapy were called "ortho-voltage"
x-ray units
7administered between the
interstices, or narrow spaces, within an organ
8a radioactive, luminous white,
metallic element that occurs in very small quantities in combination with
minerals. Radium emits alpha particles and gamma rays to form radon gas. Radium
has been used in luminous surface materials, such as the numbers on watch faces,
and used in treating cancer.
9thin, flat plates with a thin
layer of radium
10the muscular structure that
houses the vocal cords
11an uncontrolled, abnormal,
circumscribed growth of cells in any tissue; neoplasm
12now called Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
13administered between the
interstices, or narrow spaces, within an organ
14a malignant tumor composed of
epithelial tissue—the tissue layer covering body surfaces or lining the
internal surfaces of body cavities, tubes, and hollow organs
15relating to nerves or the
nervous system
16the U.S. Government's secret
project, launched December 28, 1942 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers'
Manhattan Engineer District, to develop the atomic bomb. Headquartered in
Washington, the Manhattan Project was the Office of Scientific Research and
Development Section on Uranium and was codenamed S-1 (Section One of the Office
of Scientific Research and Development).
17J. Bergonie and L. Tribondeau,
French scientists who in 1902 discovered that immature, rapidly dividing cells
were more sensitive to the effects of radiation than slowly dividing,
well-differentiated cells
18any of several cancers of the
bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of white blood cells in the
tissues, resulting in anemia, increased susceptibility to infection, and
impaired blood clotting
19a tumor arising from any of the
cellular elements of lymph nodes
20tumors forming solid tissue
masses, as compared to the highly diffuse, liquid tumors characteristic of
leukemia and lymphoma
21the time required for half the
atoms of a radioactive substance to decay
22Radon-222 has a half-life of
3.82 days.
23plural of metastasis,
the spread of disease-producing organisms or of malignant or cancerous cells to
other parts of the body by way of the blood or lymphatic vessels or membranous
surfaces; or, the condition so produced
24the count of the number of
white blood cells in a specific volume of blood
25of the lymphatic system, the
system of glands, tissues, and passages involved in generating lymphocytes and
circulating them through the body in the medium of lymph; it includes the lymph
vessels, lymph nodes, thymus, and spleen.
26the soft, fatty vascular tissue
in the cavities of bones; it is a major site of blood-cell production.
27a measure of the absorbed dose
to tissue from exposure to radiation; one rad is 100 ergs per gram of tissue
28radiation from a highly
penetrating photon of high frequency, usually 1019 Hz or more, emitted by an
atomic nucleus
29Dr. Arthur Compton, University
of Chicago, a key member of the scientific team that established the Manhattan
Project. Early in 1942, as part of the emerging effort to develop an atomic
bomb, Dr, Vannevar Bush, head of the National Defense Research Committee,
appointed Compton to be one of three program chiefs with responsibility to run
chain reactions and develop weapons theory. As a result, under Arthur Compton
the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago became a critical
research facility for the Manhattan Project.
30A pioneer in radiation therapy,
Robert Stone, M.D., had conducted human radiation studies before World War II.
He was an early researcher at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory and became a
major figure in radiobiology research. When Joseph Hamilton began operating his
60-inch cyclotron at Crocker Laboratory, Stone requested that fission products
be made on the cyclotron and that their fate in mammals be systematically
studied in small animals. That information would be used for radiation
protection proposes. In 1942, while chairing the Department of Radiology at UC
San Francisco's medical school, Stone was recruited to lead the Medical Division
of the Manhattan Project, overseeing all biological, medical, and radiological
protection research. Accordingly, he moved to the University of Chicago, where
he served as Associate Director for Health under Arthur Compton. In the 1950s,
after serving in the Atomic Energy Commission, Stone returned to his post at the
UCSF as head of the Department of Radiology. Under Stone, UCSF acquired a 70-MeV
synchrotron for conducting therapeutic research.
31University of California,
Berkeley, site of groundbreaking early research in nuclear science and location
of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory
32an accelerator in which
particles move in spiral paths in a constant magnetic field
33determine the amount of
material present in tissue, urine or feces by any trial measurement
34a technique whereby
photographic film is placed over thinly sliced tissue to record, in image form,
the radiation tracks from the tissue that pass through the film's emulsion
35Dr. John Lawrence, brother of
Ernest O. Lawrence, was Director of the Division of Medical Physics at the
University of California, Berkeley. He operated a clinic at Donner Laboratory,
where he treated leukemia and polycythemia vera patients with radioactive
phosphorus. For a colleague's recollection of Dr. Lawrence's clinic, see in the
interview with Dr. John Gofman (DOE/EH-0457,
June 1995), the sections "From Research to Laboratory Production of
Plutonium," "Medical Treatments With Radioactive Phosphorus (32P),"
"Conflict Between University of California San Francisco and Berkeley,"
"Heparin and Lipoprotein Research With Human Subjects," and "Radiophosphorus
Therapy for Polycythemia Vera." See also "Reflections on John Lawrence"
in
DOE/EH-0476, Human Radiation Studies:
Remembering the Early Years; Oral History of Physiologist Nello Pace, Ph.D.
(June 1995).
36relating to the study of the
nature, function, and diseases of the blood and of blood-forming organs
37the condition of widespread
dissemination of cancer throughout the body
38a disease characterized by
overproduction of red blood cells
39the system involved with the
formation of blood
40 relating to the formation of
blood
41Calcium-45 has a half-life of
164 days; calcium-47, 4.9 days.
42a laboratory set up at the UC
Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley during the 1930s specifically to conduct
experiments in medical physics. For an inside view of Donner Laboratory's role,
programs, personalities, and day-to-day operations, see DOE/EH-0479, Human Radiation Studies:
Remembering the Early Years; Oral History of Donner Lab Administrator Baird G.
Whaley (September 1995).
43an excess assimilation of
radioiodine in the thyroid, indicating abnormality
44alimentary canal, a tubular
passage functioning in the digestion and absorption of food and the elimination
of food residue, beginning at the mouth and terminating at the anus; here,
Freidell is referring to administration by ingestion.
45Unlike humans, animals can be
kept in cages and fed a prescribed diet.
46relating to chemotherapy, the
treatment of disease by means of toxic chemicals that kill cells or inhibit
their ability to grow and multiply
47Nucleotides are any of a group
of molecules that, when linked together, form the building blocks of DNA or RNA.
48Phosphorus-32 has a half-life
of 14.22 days.
49studies related to metabolism,
the rate at which chemical processes take place in the body
50radioactive tags on
biomolecules, used to study a biological, chemical, or physical system
51According to the "linear
hypothesis," all ionizing radiation is harmful; the harm rises in direct
proportion to the dose. Over time, some radiologists and health physicists came
to find this assumption simplistic and proposed more complex models, most of
them based on a linear quadratic equation.
52radiation of high penetrating
power originating in outer space and consisting partly of high-energy atomic
nuclei
53Radioiodine (131I) is widely
used to diagnose thyroid function and also is a highly effective therapy for
hyperthyroidism, Graves' disease, and thyroid cancer.
54an endocrine gland located at
the base of the neck and secreting two hormones that regulate the rates of
metabolism, growth, and development
55relating with tumors, including
the origin, development, diagnosis, and treatment of cancer
56At Los Alamos Scientific
Laboratory in early 1944, Segrè developed Little Boy, a lighter, smaller
version of a uranium bomb that used a plutonium gun design. Little Boy was
dropped, untested, at Hiroshima on August 6, 1945.
57Joseph Hamilton, an M.D.,
worked at Crocker Laboratory, then the site of a 60-inch cyclotron that he
operated to produce radioisotopes in support of research and some medical
diagnosis and treatment. Crocker was part of the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory,
later renamed Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, in Berkeley, California.
58a medical researcher at the
University of California, San Francisco who died prematurely of leukemia,
probably brought on by overexposure to radiation in the course of his career,
which included work with radiophosphorus in England. Low-Beer, a physician, had
been trained in his native Czechoslovakia. He served as an associate professor
of Radiation Therapy before heading the Radiation Therapy Division of the
Department of Radiology at UC San Francisco.
59For reminiscences of Dr.
Soley's radioiodine treatment clinic, see DOE/EH-0465,
Human Radiation Studies: Remembering the Early Years; Oral History of Dr.
Nadine Foreman, M.D. (July 1995).
60U.S. chemist, born 1912. A
professor of Chemistry at the University of California, Berkeley, Seaborg
discovered plutonium in 1940 and went on to play a key role in the discovery of
more than half a dozen heavy elements through the 1950s, winning the Nobel Prize
for Chemistry in 1952. Seaborg later served as Director of the Atomic Energy
Commission.
61Hamilton died prematurely of
leukemia brought on, colleagues believe, by occupational exposure to radiation.
62the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers organization set up to administer the development of the atomic bomb
under the secret Manhattan Project
63Metallurgical Laboratory, the
laboratory set up at the University of Chicago during World War II to lead the
secret research and development of controlled nuclear fission under the
Manhattan Project. Met Lab researchers had produced the first self-sustained
nuclear chain reaction on December 2, 1942. Operating initially at one-half
watt, it achieved 200 watts ten days later.
64(1908–) Hungarian-born
refugee physicist and the "Father of the Hydrogen Bomb." Teller was
one of a number of European scientists who had fled to the United States in the
1930s to escape Nazi and Fascist repression.
65founded by Ernest Lawrence in
1936; now Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, a National Laboratory under the U.S.
Department of Energy
66established by an executive
order June 28, 1941—six days after German troops invaded the Soviet Union.
The OSRD's Director reported directly to the President and could invoke the
prestige of the White House when dealing with other Federal agencies. The
National Defense Research Committee, at the time headed by Harvard President
James Conant, became an advisory body responsible for making research and
development recommendations to the OSRD.
67a professor of Radiology at the
University of Rochester (Rochester, New York), site of research involving
plutonium and human subjects. Dr. Warren worked on the Manhattan Project in Oak
Ridge as head of the medical section and headed an Intramedical Advisory
Committee. After World War II, Dr. Warren became dean of the University of
California, Los Angeles Medical School.
68During World War II, the
Manhattan Project had built a vast complex of highly classified facilities in
and near Oak Ridge, Tennessee, to process uranium for use in atomic bombs. The
Atomic Energy Commission assumed control of these facilities upon its creation.
Today they belong to the Department of Energy.
69E.I. du Pont de Nemours and
Company constructed and operated the Hanford site in Washington state from 1943
to 1946 for the Manhattan Project. Du Pont and the Harshaw Chemical Company of
Cleveland produced uranium hexafluoride on a scale sufficient to keep the vital
isotope-separation research going.
70an early form of a nuclear
reactor, an apparatus in which a nuclear-fission chain reaction is sustained and
controlled
71the DOE's 570-square-mile
former site for plutonium production, located near Richland, Washington
72Leon O. Jacobsen, M.D. (born
1911), specialized in internal medicine. He served as Director of Health,
Plutonium Project of the Manhattan Engineer District at the University of
Chicago. Jacobsen specialized in hematology, radiation biology, and the effects
of chemotherapy and isotopes on leukemia and lymphoma. Jacobsen served as the
first director of the Argonne Cancer Research Hospital.
73the count of the number of red
and white blood cells and platelets in a specific volume of blood
74a substance that slows
(moderates) or thermalizes neutrons coming from the fission reaction, increasing
the probability of their causing additional fissions in sustaining the chain
reaction. In modern reactors, water is used as the neutron moderator.
75Friedell is referring to the
presidential Advisory Committee on Human Radiation, formed in 1994 and chaired
by Dr. Ruth Faden, a bioethicist from Johns Hopkins University.
76For Du Pont's role in the
Manhattan Project, see the footnote on Harshaw Chemical Company, earlier in this
section.
77General Leslie R. Groves, of
the U.S. Army, assumed command of the Manhattan Engineer District in 1942 and
led it to completion of the Manhattan Project.
78Office of Scientific Research
and Development. Established by an executive order June 28, 1941—six days
after German troops invaded the Soviet Union. The OSRD's Director reported
directly to the President and could invoke the prestige of the White House when
dealing with other Federal agencies. The National Defense Research Committee, at
the time headed by Harvard President James Conant, became an advisory body
responsible for making research and development recommendations to the OSRD.
79Dr. Friedell is discussing some
of his papers on the Craver study.
80a tumor that originates from
the layer of smooth tissue that lines the blood vessels
81From 1942 to 1944, researchers
under Dr. Craver at Memorial Hospital conducted studies to determine the
clinical and hematological effects of prolonged daily exposure to whole-body,
high-voltage x-ray irradiation. The work was sponsored by the Manhattan Engineer
District. For a summary and list of references, see OT-66, " Tolerance to
Whole-Body Irradiation of Patients with Advanced Cancer," in Human
Radiation Experiments Associated with the U.S. Department of Energy and Its
Predecessors, DOE/EH-0491, July 1995.
82products such as the elements
strontium and cesium that are formed during the splitting of uranium atoms in a
nuclear reactor
83Originally headquartered in New
York, the MED was moved to Washington, D.C., and finally to Oak Ridge in the
summer of 1943.
84Colonel Kenneth D. Nichols,
U.S. Army, was General Groves's chief aide and troubleshooter for the Manhattan
Project.
85Los Alamos Scientific
Laboratory was a key research and development center for the Manhattan Project.
Nuclear bombs were assembled there before and during the Cold War. It has been a
research and development center for nuclear weapon designs. Renamed Los Alamos
National Laboratory, it is now a part of the U.S. Department of Energy, operated
by the University of California.
86Bainbridge was a professor at
Harvard who taught courses in physics in the 1930s.
87Dr. Paul Aebersold established
the administrative system for distribution of radioactive isotopes. After
working on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos and Oak Ridge from 1942 to 1946,
he served as director of the Atomic Energy Commission's Isotopes Division at Oak
Ridge from 1947 to 1957. He retired as the Director of the AEC's Office of
Isotopes Development in 1965. Two-and-a-half years later, he committed suicide.
For additional information on Dr. Aebersold, see "Safety of the Nuclear
Industry" in the interview with Merril Eisenbud (DOE/EH-0456, May 1995); "Remembrances of
Personalities" in the interview with Earl Miller (DOE/EH-0474, June 1995); and "Oak Ridge
Committees (Isotope Distribution, Human Use, et al.)" and "Vanderbilt
University Study of Pregnant Women and Iron-59" in the interview with Karl
Morgan (DOE/EH-0475, June 1995).
88Hempelmann was a group leader
in the Health Division at Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory from 1943 to 1947 and
led the division from 1946 to 1948. An expert in radiology and radiobiology, he
served in the Atomic Energy Commission from 1948 to 1950, then joined the
faculty of the University of Rochester.
89At Los Alamos, Langham led the
Health Division's Radiobiology group from 1947 until his death in 1972.
90a reporter for the Albuquerque
Tribune who in 1993 wrote a lengthy series on the AEC-sponsored
plutonium injections. Her series was awarded a Pulitzer Prize.
91J. Robert Oppenheimer, U.S.
nuclear physicist (1904–67) who was chosen by General Leslie Groves to
direct the development and construction of the atomic bombs at Los Alamos.
92pertaining to the endosteum,
the inner cavity of a bone, lining the marrow cavities
93The race to build the atomic
bomb would soon result in a working bomb and possibly large-scale production.
There was an imminent need to understand the relationship between plutonium
intake and rate of excretion, so that workers could be properly monitored by
urine bioassay.
94Animals had been suspected, and
were later confirmed, to metabolize and excrete radionuclides at rates that
differed, often substantially, from the rates in humans; animal metabolic rates
are usually higher than man's.
95Shields Warren, M.D., was Chief
Pathologist at New England Deaconess Hospital and Professor of Pathology at
Harvard Medical School. He joined the U.S. Navy Medical Department in 1939 and
wrote with others on what was then known about radiation during World War II.
Dr. Warren served on the first U.S. team to visit Hiroshima and Nagasaki after
they were bombed with atomic weapons and was involved in creating what became
the Atomic Bomb Casualty Commission. He was the first director of the AEC's
Division of Biology and Medicine and, later, established his own cancer research
institute at New England Deaconess Hospital. See "Recollections of Shields
Warren" in DOE/EH-0471, Human
Radiation Studies: Remembering the Early Years; Oral History of Radiologist
Henry I. Kohn, M.D., Ph.D. (June 1995).
96Karl Morgan recalls: "I
don't think it would be any problem in getting the plutonium. Probably— my
guess would be that Hymer Friedell or Stafford [Warren] were brought intimately
into the earlier stages of [this study]. I say that without any great knowledge,
but only because I knew both parties quite well at the time and knew what their
interest[s] were and what one of their main goals was: to get information on the
risks of plutonium [and uranium]. —from "Plutonium Injection Studies
at an Oak Ridge Military Hospital (1945)" in DOE/EH-0475, Human Radiation Studies:
Remembering the Early Years; Oral History of Health Physicist Karl Z. Morgan,
Ph.D. (June 1995).
97Groves was portrayed by Brian
Dennehy in a 1989 movie (Day One).
98the short title for a Los
Alamos report on results of research involving injection of plutonium into human
subjects: W.H. Langham, S.H. Bassett, P.S. Harris and R.E. Carter. "Distribution
and Excretion of Plutonium Administered Intravenously to Man." Los Alamos:
Los Alamos Scientific Laboratory, LA-1151, 1950; reprinted in Health
Physics. Vol. 38, No. 6, 1980, pp. 1031–60.
99the city onto which the first
atomic bomb was dropped by a U.S. bomber on August 6, 1945, killing tens of
thousands and helping to end World War II
100the U.S. Atomic Energy
Commission, predecessor agency to the U.S. Department of Energy and Nuclear
Regulatory Commission (NRC); established January 1, 1947
101a contrast agent containing
232thorium oxide, used in radiology to highlight certain parts of the body in
x-ray images
102a protein found in nearly
every animal and in many vegetable tissues, and characterized by being soluble
in water and coagulable by heat. Serum albumen is the chief protein of human
blood plasma.
103atomic species in which the
atoms all have the same atomic number but different mass numbers according to
the number of neutrons in the nucleus
104In the early '30s at MIT,
Evans investigated the bioeffects of radium on dial painters in New Jersey and
Connecticut. By 1941, Evans with others had set the first standards for a
tolerance level for radium in the human body. The first "tolerance level"
for radium was set at 0.1 microgram body burden: Evans judged that there would
be no bone cancers below 0.1 microgram 226Ra in the skeleton. Later he served on
the AEC's Committee on Isotope Distribution. At a 1967 symposium, he proposed
that the AEC establish a National Center for Human Radiobiology so the AEC could
follow up and combine all the radium cases being studied at MIT, Argonne
National Laboratory, and elsewhere. On September 1, 1969, the center opened at
Argonne, headed by Robert E. Rowland; Evans maintained a satellite office at
MIT. In the early 1990s, Evans's pioneering basic research earned him the
Department of Energy's Fermi Award.
105a large, elongated gland
behind the stomach. Its secretions are concerned in digestion.
106a radioactive isotope of
carbon having a half-life of about 5,730 years: widely used in the dating of
organic materials; also called radiocarbon
107 to remove or destroy by
radiation
108installed a cannula, a metal
tube inserted into the body to draw off fluid or introduce medication
109the provision or supplying of
oxygenated blood instead of venous blood
110devices used to count the
rate of radiation emissions from radionuclides inside a subject's body, using
radiation detection instruments or a whole-body counter
111drugs approved for human use
112the conceptual use of
fission-product radiation to kill enemy troops
113a program initiated by
President Dwight D. Eisenhower to identify and demonstrate uses for peaceful
nuclear explosives (PNEs), such as civil engineering projects. For a variety of
reasons, no such peaceful nuclear explosions ever were conducted by the United
States as anything other than tests. Before its breakup, the Soviet Union
reportedly used PNEs in several massive civil works projects.
114In the late 1950s and early
'60s, several contractors worked on the development of nuclear-reactor–powered
jet engines for long-range military aircraft. The projects were funded by the
AEC and the Department of Defense, and the contractors included General
Electric, Pratt & Whitney, and others. Engines were built in Connecticut
(Pratt & Whitney) and Ohio (GE), and some were tested at the National
Reactor Testing Station in Idaho. Also known as the NEPA (Nuclear Engine for the
Propulsion of Aircraft) program, the nuclear aircraft program was cancelled by
President Kennedy because problems with engine weight and crew shielding, as
well as design philosophy disagreements, were halting progress.
115Tobias was a professor of
medical physics and radiology at the Donner Laboratory and the University of
California at Berkeley. Dr. Tobias's main research focused on the biological
effects of radiation; cancer research; and space medicine. For the transcript of
the interview with Tobias, see DOE/EH-0480,
Human Radiation Studies: Remembering the Early Years; Oral History of
Biophysicist Cornelius A. Tobias, Ph.D. (July 1995).
116National Council on Radiation
Protection. Although the words "and Measurements" were later appended
to the name, the council's initials remain NCRP.
117a ductless gland lying at the
base of the neck, formed mostly of lymphatic tissue and aiding in the production
of T cells of the immune system
118physicist, group leader at
the Met Lab in Chicago (1943–44), and subsequently of Los Alamos Scientific
Laboratory (1944–46), and Cornell University (1946–); recipient of
numerous prizes in physics and astronomy
119Nobel Laureate for discovery
of the energy processes of the sun
120Alamogordo, a city in New
Mexico, is located 50 miles southeast of the first atomic bomb explosion (July
16, 1945); Dr. Friedell was in Albuquerque during the test.
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