This story does not end with a technophilic moral. The lovely glowing radium on the shiny new watches did not represent the American dream, nor did it herald a new era of radioactive luxury. Instead, rich men grew richer, and the women making the watches grew sick and felt their bones soften as their gums bled and their teeth fell out. Radium was not a wonder molecule. It was poison, it was dangerous, and it was painted on the jewelry and skin and teeth of the unwitting before they even knew what it was.