Johnson, “Introduction” to Romancing the Atom (p. xi-xvi) and Johnson, “For the Love of Pretty Things: The Radium Girls and ‘Dying for Science’” (p. 1-14)

Blog one post to determine the following things for today’s text (these are two chapters from the same book so you can treat them as one text): 

1. Who is talking/writing?
2. Who is the primary audience for this text?
3. What does the text say (or imply) “rhetoric” is? What does this text say (or imply) “genre” is?
4. What is the main argument or message of this text? 
5. What does this text say about the importance of rhetoric in the sciences?

Robert R Johnson is the author of the excerpt, “For the Love of Pretty Things: The Radium Girls and ‘Dying for Science'”. Before getting into the story of Katherine and the other radium girls, he starts off by describing the term ‘invention’ and where the word originates. He says how invention comes from the Greek and Roman term ‘inventio’ which means “making new”. He describes that humanity continuously invents, reinvents, makes new technology. At one point in time humanity invented the atom bomb. This occurred during the time period of World War II. Power went to the heads of military figures and they started abusing their knowledge of atomic bombs and radiation. This brings us to the story of how four women factory workers would make clocks and dials and, while making them, would use this radioactive luminescent paint. The paint was highly toxic, however. The factory knew of this, but decided not to tell the factory workers. This story is a story of these brave women who fought for a cause. They gave their lives for the greater good and equal rights.