Ionizing Radiation and Life

17 Life under Conditions of Ionizing Radiation

Life on Earth, throughout its almost 4 billion years history, has been shaped by interactions of the organisms with their environment. It has developed with an ever present radiation background. As a powerful mutagen it has contributed to biological evolution, however, it is potentially destructive for individual cells and organisms [1]. Radiation response differs extremely for different organi...

Ionizing Radiation

581 *Lieutenant Colonel, U.S. Army; Health Services Command Radiation Protection Staff Officer, Fort Sam Houston, Texas 78234-6000; formerly Chief, Health Physics Division, U.S. Army Environmental Hygiene Agency †Chief, Industrial Health Physics Branch, Health Physics Division, U.S. Army Environmental Hygiene Agency ‡Captain, U.S. Army; Chief, Medical Health Physics Branch, U.S. Army Environmen...

People and ionizing radiation

Ionizing Radiation

Introduction Radiation that has sufficient energy to remove electrons from atoms is called “ionizing radiation.” Ionization results in the production of negatively charged free electrons and positively charged ionized atoms. Ionizing radiation can be classified into two groups: photons (includes X-radiation and gamma radiation) and particles (includes alpha and beta particles and neutrons). The...

Ionizing Radiation

Ionizing radiation is electromagnetic radiation that has sufficient energy to remove electrons from atoms. Ionization results in the production of negatively charged free electrons and positively charged ionized atoms. Ionizing radiation can be classified into two categories: photons (X-radiation and gamma radiation) and particles (alpha and beta particles and neutrons). Five types or sources o...