A Brief Account of Radio-activity

"A Brief Account of Radio-activity" by F. P. Venable is an informative scientific book from the early 1900s that explains the new subject of radioactivity and its effect on science. The author, a chemistry professor, worked to explain radioactivity to science-minded people by reviewing important findings, such as Henri Becquerel's discovery and the Curies' identification of radium and polonium. The book describes alpha, beta, and gamma rays, discussing what they do and how they act. It shows how radioactivity changed ideas about chemistry, especially about atoms and the periodic table, to give the reader a glimpse into the basic parts of matter and how atoms work together.