A CRITICAL CURRICULUM DEFICIENCY - RADIOACTIVITY IN GEOLOGY

General science and geoscience education commonly neglects to teach concepts essential to appreciate the critical role of nuclear processes and radioactivity in Earth’s past, present, and future. While radioactive decay and half-lives of radioisotopes are usually introduced to explain radiometric dating (along the forward arrow), the complementary concept of “double-life” (along the reverse arrow) is conspicuously missing. For proof, question just about any group of students, graduates, or instructors (who have taken high school or college science courses since ~1980) what they know about pre-Fermi natural nuclear reactors (discovered 1972). Most are also surprised to learn that comparatively high radioactive background was likely an indispensable ingredient for the generation and evolution of life on Earth. Ignorance about this and interrelated crucial facts may trigger irrational fear of anything nuclear or radioactive and mindless opposition to associated aspects of engineering and environmental science. Suppression of vital aspects of geoscience literacy, whether by neglect or intent, must end. In a nutshell, science education must explain why “an antinuclear geologist (scientist, engineer) is an oxymoron.”