Ursula K. Le Guin
Radioactive” is a word that seized our imaginations. The term emerged from scientific experiments many decades ago, meant to describe an extraordinary phenomenon: the emission of rays, a shining of energy from certain materials.
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But our quest to understand and control radiation became more than science. It also became about life and death, the profound and the terrifying.
So, how has this word truly changed our lives?
Ursula K. Le Guin
giant
ants!
1
Unpacking our fears
Two policemen struggled to solve a string of killings in the desert. The bodies were nowhere to be found, and oddly, no money or valuables were taken. And strangely, half-eaten sugar cubes littered the crime scene, making the murder even more bizarre.
Suddenly, the culprits emerged from the bowels of the land:
As the plot unfolds, we learn that the creatures are a mutant byproduct of Alamogordo, New Mexico, their genes distorted by radioactive fallout from the first American nuclear weapons test called the Trinity explosion, conducted in July 1945.
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Trinity Test conducted in July 16, 1945
in New Mexico, USA
THEM! (1954, Warner Brothers Studio), was one of the first American monster movies about radioactive mutations, helped define and perpetuate the most enduring emotional reaction to radiation:
“When man entered the atomic age, he opened a door into a new world. What we'll eventually find in that new world, nobody can predict.”
• THEM! (1954)
Trinity Test conducted in July 16, 1945
in New Mexico, USA
