Radium and the Foundations of Civilization
Radium has for the time at least seemingly upset two of the foundation stones of modern science, namely, the conservation of energy, and the transmutation of one element into another. In speaking of the possibility of the latter, the London Spectator says:— If it became possible simply and expeditiously to transmute lead and iron into gold or silver, the basis of our civilization would disappear. Wealth in kind would become the only form of riches. The stores of bullion at the banks would become simply heaps of scrap-iron. The great financial centers of the world, which owe their importance to their gold reserves, would lose the basis of their pre-eminence. Banking would come to an end; reserves of capital would cease to have any practical meaning; all forms of investment would cease; the gold-producing countries, like the Transvaal and West Australia, would be bankrupted; and the elaborate system of commerce which mankind has built up during a thousand years would crumble about our ears, for there would be no standard, no little rod, by which to measure prices. But ought not a civilization to disappear which is founded on so sordid a basis?