This story was originally performed at KUT’s ATXplained Live show on April 29. Get tickets for our next show on Oct. 29!

One of the Texas Capitol’s most striking features is the Hill Country granite that gives it its pink hue. You can see it everywhere you look in the Capitol.

But this granite — mined from Granite Mountain, west of Marble Falls — might be hiding a secret.

“I heard that the granite at the Capitol is somewhat radioactive,” said Sarah Jones, who learned about it from her husband, KUT photographer Michael Minasi.

She wanted to know if that was true.

Radiation is all around us

Remember the periodic table of elements from chemistry class? The elements on the table fall into one of two buckets: stable and unstable. For something to be radioactive, it has to have elements

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