The ability to produce and control nuclear reactions is affecting, and will doubtless continue to affect, human life in two outstanding ways. One way is by making tremendous amounts of energy available, either as explosions or as energy released from controlled reactions for peacetime use. The other way is by producing a vast variety of radioactive isotopes, first in the particle accelerators (“atom smashers”) mentioned earlier, and now in large quantities in nuclear reactors.
The presence of a radioactive isotope can be detected by instruments like the familiar Geiger counter; for this reason isotopes make wonderful tracers. These telltale atoms, which, in effect, continually cry “Here I am,” can trace the course of a chemical element through any kind of chemical reaction. Chemists are taking advantage of this new way of tagging atoms to study reaction patterns that, heretofore, have been obscure.
As a consequence, a scientist’s ability to synthesize scarce chemicals is being increased. The exact role of numerous essential trace elements in the growth and metabolism of living things, including people, is being studied by the use of tagged atoms.
Radioisotopes at Work
IN MEDICINE: Iodine-131 reveals spread of thyroid cancer in patient’s body.
IN SPACE: Plutonium-238 is the fuel for the atomic generator powering this TRANSIT satellite.
Courtesy The Martin Company
IN FOOD PRESERVATION: Potatoes stored for 18 months at 47°F. Potato at right had been irradiated, that on left had not.