While receiving radiation treatment for a thyroid illness, I had refused to take beta-blockers – a medication that would have eased its side effects – because they were deemed illegal by the sport’s governing body, the International Association of Athletics Federations.

I was diagnosed with Graves’ disease, an illness of the thyroid gland. Instead of surgery, I was given radiation treatment.

The radiation left over from the Big Bang is the same as that in your microwave oven but very much less powerful. It would heat your pizza only to minus 271.3*C – not much good for defrosting the pizza, let alone cooking it.

My experiments proved that the radiation of uranium compounds can be measured with precision under determined conditions and that this radiation is an atomic property of the element of uranium.

Knowledge leaves no regrets. Except for radiation. I wish I’d never messed with that.