The Radioactive Boy Scout

The Radioactive Boy Scout

The Radioactive Boy Scout was written by Ken Silverstein in 2004. It tells the story of a high school student, David Hahn, who became obsessed with science after receiving a chemistry book (The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments) from his dad to support his “chemistry phase”. His parents gave little parental guidance, which allowed David’s obsession with sciences to grow into an unfathomable level from his parents. As David grew deeper and deeper into his science, his schoolwork fell second to experimenting in his lab, which was an abandoned garden shed in his mother’s backyard. His father Ken, urged by his wife, Kathy, to do something about his disturbances, pushed him to enroll in Boy Scouts to keep him out

One, there are only a few isotopes that can undergo fission, which is where a nucleus breaks apart to make two separate nuclei to create a large amount of energy: Uranium-235 is the only naturally occurring isotope, leaving two, Plutonium-239 and Uranium-233, that are man-made. Two, education and studying is important (Does sucking up ever actually work?). If David had been properly educated on the nuclear reactors and their fantasy of working, he might have thought a little more precociously. Due to the fact that he hadn’t read up on the disasters or Chernobyl and Three Mile Island, he had very little education as to what could happen if his reactor failed. Moreover, he did not want to know anything that would make him pessimistic towards nuclear energy. His refusal of education ultimately hurt him in the long run. Three, adult supervision and guidance is necessary to children and teenagers. Had David’s parents given him even the slightest bit of mind and cared to actually research his science, his obsession may not have had the effect it did. David’s nuclear reactor consequently caused a neighborhood of 40,000 people to shutdown. Had he of had supervision, David may not have even had anything more than the model reactor he obtained through Boy Scouts. Fourth and foremost, I learned not to build a nuclear reactor in my backyard. Obviously, knowing

The novel shows the consequences of using certain elements without knowing what to do with them. Take when David had Sodium for example. He didn’t understand the full capability of what he had on him into consideration. The fact that it could blow his house up and everyone inside it did not faze him at all. Now take the nuclear reactor for example. The reactions which cause the reactor to work are, all in all, chemistry. Without the reactions creating fission, the reactor wouldn’t produce energy and so forth. Nuclear reactors also create new elements through fission to release energy which can help further the study of chemistry. The nuclear reactor uses fission to use the nuclei of two elements and fuse them together, therefore creating a new element. Some of the questions I have after reading this book are:

− Where were this kid’s(David’s) parents and why did they not voice more concern over his experiments?

− How did the scientists of the early 20th century not realize that the radiation was causing their diseases and sudden deaths?

− If the science teachers at David’s school saw that he had some of the things he had, why did they not voice a concern to David’s parents?

− How was David capable of fooling the radiation organizations like he did?

− Why were said organizations not voicing a concern of a lack of evidence proving that David was who he was saying he was?

− Why did David’s parents not notice his