Radiation damage

2000/05/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Biologia

The powerful infrared light developed for microchip manufacturing has been used at the Berkeley National Laboratory in San Francisco to investigate how radiation and toxic chemicals damage cells. The results of these investigations could be very useful in optimizing the security measures to be taken by nuclear power plants. This method consists of radiating the cells one by one and then collecting the light reflected by the cell. The amount and composition of light reflected according to the cell components will vary and researchers can see, for example, the damage DNA receives from dead cells.

This method will be used to measure the effect of low intensity radiation, since the above methods were not effective at low intensities.