Lucy Jane Santos

Lucy Jane Santos is an expert in the history of 20th century leisure, health, and beauty.

Lucy has appeared as an occasional contributor on TV and radio, and her historical research has been featured by History Today, BBC History Revealed, Jezebel, LitHub, New York Post, the Telegraph, and on the BBC2 documentary, Makeup: A Glamorous History. Her most recent project is as Creative Consultant for the documentary Obsessed With Light a film that tells the story of the performance artist Loïe Fuller.

Her debut book was Half Lives: The Unlikely History of Radium and this will be followed by a history of the element uranium, to be published in 2024 (Icon Books).

Lucy also works as a freelance historical researcher and consultant.

Current publication: 

HALF LIVES: THE UNLIKELY HISTORY OF RADIUM - Icon Books (UK, 2020) and Pegasus Books (US, 2021)

Shortlisted for the British Society for the History of Science Hughes Prize 2021. 

The surprising history of radium in everyday life.

The discovery of radium in the late 19th century prompted a flurry of experiments to scope the limits of its potential applications. Half Lives tells the fascinating, curious, sometimes macabre story of the element through its ascendance as a desirable item – a present for a queen, a prize in a treasure hunt, a glow-in-the-dark dance costume, a boon to the housewife, and an ingredient in a startling host of consumer products – to its role as a cure-all in everyday 20th-century life.
Finally, it details the gradual downfall and discredit of the radium industry through the eyes of the people who bought, sold and eventually came to fear it.

Half Lives is an enjoyable journey into the odd areas where science and consumerism meet, telling the tale of the entrepreneurs and consumers in radium’s history who have until now been considered quacks, or fools, or both.

Praise:

'Half Lives shines a light on the shocking history of the world's toxic love affair with a deadly substance, radium. Unnerving, fascinating, informative and truly frightening.' Hallie Rubenhold, author of The Five

'The story of this supposed cure-all in everyday 20th century life is fascinating and well told.' Brian Maye, Irish Times

A little gem of a book -- Medical Journalists' Association

Truly mind-boggling ... I became so engrossed I read most of it in one sitting ― Chemistry World

An engaging and definitive history ― Popular Science

With wit and empathy, Santos tells the story of the entrepreneurs and consumers in radium's history who have until now been considered quacks, or fools, or both ― Inside History

'With verve and vivacity, Lucy Jane Santos conducts her readers on a unique tour of the twentieth century's most significant scientific discovery. Before the R-word threatened destruction, it offered hope for the future -- teeth would glow white, cocktails would shine in the dark and cancer would be vanquished. This evocative account puts people and their emotions centre-stage of science's past.' - Dr Patricia Fara

’In Half Lives, Santos transports us back to a time when consumers wondered whether mixing radium into chicken feed might result in eggs that could hard-boil themselves; when diners cheerfully drank radioactive cocktails that glowed in the dark; and when people used toothpaste containing lethal thorium oxide in the pursuit of healthy gums. Santos unpicks fact from fiction and exhibits a masterful grasp of a complex area of science history that is so often mistold. Half Lives is a delightfully disturbing book that reminds us all of the age-old Latin maxim, 'caveat emptor.' - Dr Lindsey Fitzharris, bestselling author of The Butchering Art