Radiological warfare is the use of radiation as a weapon. "Death Sand" is a variant of this — the use of irradiated sand as a weapon. Details from Popular Science, Feb 1951.
Prof. Hans Thirring of Vienna proposes drying a solution of the RW [radiological warfare] agent upon sand, or metal powder. Naming the preparation "death sand," he calls it "the lightest and most transportable of all weapons of mass destruction."
Airplanes for "death-sand" attacks could resemble those used for crop dusting and spreading fertilizer from the air. A British plane for the latter purpose has dropped five tons of chemicals in a single experimental flight.
To protect occupants from the cargo's radioactivity a death-sand plane would need heavy shielding. (After calculating its weight, one scientist suggested dropping the shielding instead of the RW agent on the enemy!) But shielding could be omitted if crewless planes, under radio control from accompanying aircraft, laid the sand.
Troops in an area sprinkles with death sand will have no choice but to get out. Those who remain will receive a fatal dose in anywhere from a few hours to several weeks, depending on the intensity of the radioactivity. Like victims of A-bomb radiation, they will suffer nausea, loss of hair, anemia, and hemorrhages. But those who flee at once will suffer no ill effects.
In 1955, two women (Jeanne Baird and Sandy Hershey) were separately named "Miss Radioactive." I can't find any evidence of this title being used before or after 1955.
They both seem to be displaying the same type of radiation detector — a scintillometer. If, like me, you weren't aware of the difference between a Geiger counter and a scintillometer, you can read about it here.
Several years ago, Russian scientists developed a recipe for a blancmange that would help protect against radiation poisoning. The perfect dessert to serve in your bunker after a nuclear war. Details from Improbable.com:
The dessert blancmange consists of two layers. The first is a cheese mousse sugar syrup containing buckthorn extract, evenly distributed over the entire volume. The second layer is a jelly consisting of an extract of green tea and red wine stabilized natural pectin gelling agent. All components have high radioprotective properties.
Fox cancelled the series in late November. At the time, it was ranked 105th out of 108 weekly shows [54]. Only 10 of the 13 produced episodes were aired; the last was broadcast on December 6th.
Miss Electrical Wonderland used a radioactive key to open 1950's Electrical Wonderland expo in San Francisco. The radioactivity of the key was sensed by a Geiger counter that then triggered a man-made bolt of lightning to flash between two towers in the auditorium.
San Francisco Examiner - Sep 18, 1950
San Francisco Examiner - Sep 18, 1950
However, the identity of Miss Electrical Wonderland was, for some reason, switched at the last minute. The pre-show publicity stated that Janet Jackson was Miss Electrical Wonderland, and a photo (above) showed her handling the radioactive key bare-handed.
However, the news on the day of the opening stated that Elaine Doyle was now Miss Electrical Wonderland, and that she "gingerly lifted a radioactive copper key from its lead lined box with a pair of long handled tongs."
Why the switch? Gotta wonder if Janet Jackson was recovering from radiation burns.
I'm not sure when exactly Atomic Balm was first sold. I believe it was sometime in the 1950s. But it very quickly became widely used by football teams as a pain-relieving ointment.
It also became a favorite of pranksters. The prank involved surreptitiously placing Atomic Balm in a player's jockstrap. Since the ointment contains Capsaicin, the results were painful.
The Atomic Balm prank was a perennial favorite on high school football teams, but the most famous instance of the prank occurred on the Miami Dolphins, recounted below.
Source: Teena Dickerson, The Girlfriend's Guide to Football
Paul Di Filippo
Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.