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Gamma radiation results from the nucleus being placed in an excited state due to some prior event, such as alpha or beta decay.

The nucleus "wants" to release its excess energy, so it does so. When it does, a photon is emitted. This is the gamma radiation. There is a comparable sequence involving the electron cloud. In that case, the resulting photon has less energy, and is characterized as an x-ray, rather than gamma.

Under normal conditions, the gamma event occurs immediately (about 1 x 10-12 seconds) after the initiating event. However, some nuclides have a meta-stable form, where the gamma event is delayed substantially after the initiating event - say for a few hours or even a day or so.

There are many examples of meta-stable isotopes. One that comes to mind is Tc-99m, which is used as a tracer in various medical scanning technologies such as a heart scan or bone scan. The advantage of this is that the body is not subjected to the stronger impact of the initiating event - just the gamma event - and that can be seen with gamma scanning instrumentation.

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