ATOMIC GLASS MARBLE
I hardly believe I have this!!! Well, I believe I do - but I don't believe I *bought* it - much less that I stayed up late to put in a last minute bid (egged on by the family) and then felt so bad about pipping somebody else (is it ethical?) that I emailed him to apologise. Hmm.
The garb on the envelope says this:
It was made and purchased back in the early 1980's at the Department of Energy's Hanford Site in Richland, Washington.
This rare Atomic glass Marble was colored by exposure to gamma radiation from a Colbalt-60 source used for developing the peaceful atom at (DOE's) Pacific Northwest Laboratory, operated by Battelle-Northwest. The marble is not radioactiveand and is perfectly safe to handle. Gamma and several other forms of radiation have many beneficial uses in industry, agriculture and medicine. The brown color created by the gamma radiation is caused by electrons, (a part of all atoms) being shifted from their normal locations in the glass structure. The color will slightly fade when exposed to light or heat as the electrons return to their original positions.