Revolutionary Inventions: Part III

The next topic I’d like to cover is “Radioisotopes”, in order to get things straight,you should know that radioisotopes are different than normal Isotopes and also that “Radioactivity” discovered by Henri Becquerel in 1896.

Radioisotopes can be used in medicine but, we need to know what is.Radioisotopes are radioactive isotopes and isotopes are elements with different amounts of neutrons. Radioactive isotopes are unstable isotopes and that means that the isotope has too many neutrons,which means the isotope is unstable. Some isotopes are stable because of a proper amount of neutrons.Isotopes are made stable by a process called radioactive decay, a process in which the isotope rearranges itself to bring it to a stable state.

Radioactivity receives hatred because it causes cancer and can alter our DNA but, it can also help us in curing cancer and much more. An example for isotopes is hydrogen-1, it is stable so it can’t help us in anything but Hydrogen-2(deuterium)and Hydrogen-3(tritium) which are unstable. Radioisotopes are used in medicine to trace body chemistry and an example for radiotherapy is Technetium-99 is injected in our bloodstream and shows up on body scans and medical imaging. Many other isotopes are phosphorus-32,cobalt -60 and Iodine-131. Phosphorus is used to detect brain tumor and Sodium -121 can detect blood clots