It can be used in medicine, they use a radioactive isotope of a very short half life to help diagnose medical conditions.
Carbon 14 can also be used to date organic material and is determined by the decay rate and comparison of carbon-14 to carbon-12 as carbon-14 is a radioactive isotope and will hence decay at a half life of 5720 years. radioactive isotopes can be used to
determine the ages of rocks and fossils
to treat cancer and kill bacteria that causes food to spoil
as "tracers" to follow the movements of substances within organisms
There are probably three major uses of short-lived radioisotopes. One would be in medical imaging wherein a short-lived radioactive material is given to a patient so that it will "light up" a given type of tissue. Another would be in tracing the movement of compounds in biological investigation. This could be in both animals and plants. Yet a third would be in the treatment (radiation therapy) of certain medical conditions.
Uranium-238 is a radioactive isotope and it used to make nuclear bombs.
· Smoke detectors
· Food Irradiation
· Pest Control
· Tracers
· Sterilisation
· Carbon Dating
· Medical Imaging
Some imaging uses radioactive isotopes to see various parts of the body.
There are far too many isotopes of different elements to list them here. Just as one example, most hydrogen is 1H, but 2H is the hydrogen in deuterium, which has several industrial uses. A more specific question will get a more specific answer.
Radioactive isotopes have many uses:- sources of energy- tracers- treatment of cancers- sources of radiation- components of instruments- nuclear fuels- nuclear bombsand many others
Carbon-14 is used to determine the age of fossils. Radiation therapy for cancer comes from isotopes that emit gamma rays. Thyroid tissue that may be cancerous and has left the throat region can be located in the body with radioactive iodine.
Radioactive isotopes are a subset of isotopes. If we look at all isotopes, some of them are radioactive. That means that they have unstable nuclei, and they will decay spontaneously sooner or later.
The explanation is the effect of ionizing radiation on tissues and materials.Three uses are:- sterilizing of instruments and parapharmaceutic items- diagnostic with radioactive isotopes (scintigraphy)- treatment of cancers with radioactive isotopes
Carbon dating and tracking.
Some imaging uses radioactive isotopes to see various parts of the body.
There are far too many isotopes of different elements to list them here. Just as one example, most hydrogen is 1H, but 2H is the hydrogen in deuterium, which has several industrial uses. A more specific question will get a more specific answer.
Radioactive isotopes have many uses:- sources of energy- tracers- treatment of cancers- sources of radiation- components of instruments- nuclear fuels- nuclear bombsand many others
uranium -just an elemet uranium 235 -element but this is radioactive
Carbon-14 is used to determine the age of fossils. Radiation therapy for cancer comes from isotopes that emit gamma rays. Thyroid tissue that may be cancerous and has left the throat region can be located in the body with radioactive iodine.
- energy source - radiation source - tracer - fuel for nuclear reactors - explosive for nuclear bombs
Radioactive isotopes are a subset of isotopes. If we look at all isotopes, some of them are radioactive. That means that they have unstable nuclei, and they will decay spontaneously sooner or later.
Radiocarbon dating of organic samples is a biological application of radioactive isotopes. Another such application is the tagging of molecules with radioisotopes in order to investigate biological pathways, such as metabolism.
You are perhaps not aware that all atoms are isotopes. An isotope is simply an atom with a specified number of neutrons. Some isotopes are radioactive, and those are probably the ones you are asking about. These are primarily used for medical purposes; radiation has a variety of uses, both diagnostic and therapeutic (radiation can be used to kill cancer cells, for example). There are also many other scientific activities that use radioactive isotopes, for example, the use of radioactive carbon to perform carbon dating, to find out how old something is (such as the Shroud of Turin, which as it turns out is not as old as it was claimed to be, although it is quite old).
Radioactive isotopes used for medical purpose should not have long lives. The imaging cameras need to pick up the particles from the decay of the radioactive nuclei, and having a lot within an hour or two means a short half-life.