Activation Analysis
Another booklet in this series, Neutron Activation Analysis, discusses a new process by which microscopic quantities of many different materials may be analyzed accurately. Neutron irradiation of these samples changes some of their atoms to radioactive isotopes. A multichannel analyzer instrument gives a record of the concentration of any of about 50 of the known elements.
One use of this technique involved the analysis of a hair from Napoleon’s head. More than 100 years after his death it was shown that the French Emperor had been given arsenic in large quantities and that this possibly caused his death.
The ways in which activation analysis can be applied to medical diagnosis are at present largely limited to toxicology, the study of poisons, but the future may bring new possibilities.
Knowledge is still being sought, for example, about the physiological role played by minute quantities of some of the elements found in the body. The ability to determine accurately a few parts per million of “trace elements” in the various tissues and body fluids is expected to provide much useful information as to the functions of these materials.