"On this view, the continuous emission of energy from the active bodies is derived from the internal energy inherent in the atom, and does not in any way contradict the law of the conservation of energy. At the same time, however, it indicates that an enormous store of latent energy is resident in the radio-atoms themselves. This store of energy has previously not been observed, on account of the impossibility of breaking up into simpler forms the atoms of the elements by the action of the chemical or physical forces at our command."