This book presents a history of radioecology, from World War II through to the critical years of the Cold War, finishing with a discussion of recent developments and future implications for the field. Drawing on a vast array of primary sources, the book reviews, synthesizes and discusses the implications of the ecological research supported by the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC) of the United States government, from World War II to the early 1970s. This was a critical period in the history of ecology, characterized by a transition from the older, largely descriptive studies of communities of plants and animals to the modern form of the science involving functional studies of energy flow and mineral cycling in ecosystems. This transition was in large part due to the development of radioecology, which was a by-product of the Cold War and the need to understand and predict the consequences of a nuclear war that was planned but has never occurred. The book draws on important case studies, such as the Pacific Proving Grounds, the Nevada Test Site, El Verde in Puerto Rico, the Brookhaven National Laboratory and recent events such as the nuclear disasters at Chernobyl and Fukushima. By revisiting studies and archived information from the Cold War era, this book offers lessons from the history of radioecology to provide background and perspective for understanding possible present-day impacts from issues of radiation risks associated with nuclear power generation and waste disposal. Post-Cold War developments in radioecology will be also reviewed and contrasted with the AEC-supported ecology research for further perspectives. This book will be of great interest to students and scholars of radioecology, environmental pollution, environmental technology, bioscience and environmental history.

This book highlights the multiple ways of telling stories of radiation exposure; they include stories about Japan, Australia, the United States, the Canadian Arctic, and more, and they probe the framing of major incidents such as Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima. All the chapters in this book are written by authors who participated in our work at Oregon State University and have benefited from hearing not only from scientists but also from those whose lives were directly affected by the history of radiation exposure. The question ‘What is at stake when researching and narrating the histories of radiation exposure?’ is discussed, but the book does not reinforce existing frameworks, such as legal decisions or government policies, but rather highlights what narrative framings accomplish and commit by scrutinizing them with rigorous research, varied approaches, and, above all, listening to those whose lives were most affected by exposure. Previously published in Journal of the History of Biology Volume 54, issue 1, April 2021

This book follows up a 2005 International Conference in Yerevan, Armenia dedicated to the 70th anniversary of the 1935 publication of the "green paper", by N.W. Timofeeff-Ressovsky, K. Zimmer and M. Delbruck entitled "On the origin of gene mutations and gene structure". This was the starting point of the NATO Advanced Research Workshop, whose proceedings are published in this book, with papers dealing directly with Timofeeff-Ressovsky’s life, and the "green pamphlet".