| MadSci Network: Chemistry |
Karen: It sounds like you already know that isotopes of an element behave alike chemically. Scientists have been able to use that property to do some wonderful things using certain isotopes which happen to be unstable, or radioactive. An example would be the radioactive isotope of iodine. In the body, the element iodine is captured in the thyroid gland. Scientists have learned to take a "picture" of that gland using the gamma rays that come from one of the radioactive isotopes of iodine. This allows doctors to diagnose different diseases of the thyroid. That is just one example. There are literally hundreds of radioactive isotopes being used in medicine and industry to diagnose illness or treat certain diseases or assure the quality of a difficult welding job or kill bacteria in spices or vegetables or meat or medical instruments. Since you seem to be familiar with the internet, I would suggest that you use your favorite search engine and look for topics like "radioactivity - beneficial uses". I'm certain that you will be able to find very many sites which describe various ingenious beneficial uses of radioactive isotopes. If you have any trouble finding these sites, I would suggest that you ask you teacher for topics to search for. You are correct that many of them are in the field of medicine, but a little searching on your part will probably reveal uses of radioisotopes in almost every facet of 21st century life, including things like airport luggage imaging devices and increased fire safety using smoke detectors. Good luck with your search.
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