"Nothing in life is to be feared. It is to be understood." - Marie Curie

Whether you're reading this story on newsprint or your computer, you have Marie Curie's discovery of radioactivity to thank for some of the technology that is bringing it to you.

Even Richland scientist Alan Waltar was surprised as he researched his new book Radiation and Modern Life to find how much of daily life in the United States depends on products that are manufactured with the help of radiation.

It's the second science book he's written for nonscientists that draws on his nuclear engineering background. But it's the first that a publisher begged him to write.

Part of the commercial interest in the book comes from a collaboration with Helene Langevin-Joliot, the granddaughter of Curie. She wrote an introduction, supplied little-seen photos of her grandmother and critiqued each chapter.

"Marie Curie liked to emphasize that science has a great beauty, that scientific breakthroughs were driven by the spirit of adventure and curiosity," Langevin-Joliot wrote.

"Let us use Marie Curie's discoveries for the greatest benefit to humanity," she concluded.

Curie worked during World War I to set up mobile radiological posts to X-ray wounded soldiers. But it was World War II and the explosion of two atomic bombs on Japanese cities that brought radiation to public notice.

Perhaps if radiation had been more widely used for good before, there would be less fear of nuclear technology today, Waltar said. He recently retired as the director of nuclear energy for the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and continues to serve the lab as a senior adviser.

Fears of nuclear proliferation are legitimate, Waltar said. But daily life also has been dramatically changed for the better by myriad uses of radiation since Marie and Pierre Curie accepted the Nobel Prize 101 years ago, he said.

"Radiation has had more impact on food than anything else," Waltar said.

More than 2,250 new crop varieties have been developed in the past 70 years, most with the help of radiation. Seeds are irradiated to alter DNA structure and produce plants that may be hardier, mature faster, provide improved nutrition or are easier to process.

The peppermint plant in the United States was facing extinction because of a fungal disease until a resistant variety was developed by radiation bombardment, Waltar said.

Radiation also has been used to produce grain varieties that have become staples in diets around the world.

Half the wheat grown in pizza- and pasta-loving Italy is a variety developed via radiation. Waltar sees particular importance in new varieties of rice that are more hardy or have substantially higher yields to feed the world's growing population in countries with rice-based diets.

Researching the book became something of a treasure hunt for Waltar.

Even a visit to his optician turned into a chance to ask the practitioner if radiation was used in the optics business. It's all physics, replied the optician.

But then he remembered that contact solution arrives in shipping boxes that have a reference to radiation. Saline solution is irradiated with gamma rays to kill any parasites because the product has contact with the eye.

It's difficult to find a product that does not use ionizing radiation, Waltar said. It's used in many paper mills to gauge the thickness of pulp and of newsprint during high-speed production. Computers depend on radiation-enhanced semiconductors.

Manufacturers depend on radiation gauges to make sure boxes of cereal and cans of soda pop are full. Most plastics rely on radiation during manufacturing for uniform density, and most good quality glass - used from eyeglasses to windshields - depends on radiation to get the optimal moisture content.

The list goes on: vulcanized tires, airport landing lights, smoke detectors, disposable diapers, makeup, many cotton fabrics and the most sophisticated DNA tests for crime solving.

But most important to Waltar is nuclear medicine, and his book includes the X-ray to prove it.

When he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, he chose to be treated with brachytherapy, a process that implants tiny radioactive seeds to kill cancer cells.

"The bottom line is that I went home the next day ... and jogged a full mile only five days after the procedure," he wrote.

Two years later, there's no sign of the cancer's return.

Society may have only begun to use the power of the atom for good, Waltar said, particularly if the public becomes comfortable with it.

"Marie Curie set an excellent example for us to follow - both with her creative scientific mind and with her unbending devotion to utilizing discoveries for the greatest benefit to human progress," he wrote.