Trafficking Materials and Gendered Experimental Practices: Radium Research in Early 20th Century Vienna

by Maria Rentetzi

Maria Rentetzi Surveys the materials and experimental practices of radioactivity research in early twentieth century Vienna, focusing on radioactive materials, instruments, women's work in physics, and gendered skills. She expands the notion of material culture to include not only instruments and objects but also materials that operated as both commodities and objects of scientific inquiry. Rentetzi tells the true story of how purified radium ended up on laboratory benches; who extracted and isolated it from tons of residues; who designed experiments and instruments for probing radium's properties; the process through which radium was carried outside of the physics laboratory and into medical amphitheaters and the clinic; how the architecture of the laboratory affected men's and women's scientific work; and how its urban setting reflected assumptions about scientific crossdisciplinary collaborations.

320 pages, Unknown Binding

First published August 1, 2008