Radiations

         A lot of people, with the advance of sciences and educational system, still to this very day have some misconceptions about radiation and the basics of radiation. The first thing to bear in mind, or let's say, to erase from the mind, is that “radiation” is never a bad word. Seriously, some people just have this feeling of fear from anything related to radiation or any chemicals that is said to be radioactive. For this purpose, in the next few lines, I shall try to explain some basics of radiation and radioactivity and how it is “useful” in many fields of our lives today. First thing to know is, radiation is not a word used for a single entity. It is rather a general word with many different aspects.

         Scientists classified radiations according to 2 major classes: a. Ionizing Radiation, and b. non-Ionizing radiation. In my work as a physicist and a researcher in environmental radiation, when we say the word “Radiation” we mostly mean Ionizing radiation, and most of people right now think of this field whenever they encounter the word “Radiation.” Unfortunately, a lot of people forget that even their cell phones and microwave devices are in fact radiation-producers, but most of them are of the non-Ionizing type.

A. Ionizing Radiation.
         Ionizing radiation is the type of energy emitted from a subject (primarily as a chemical element), and this energy is capable of “ionizing” its surrounding. Ionizing means to be able to free the atom of the electrons that are bound to it, and to do that you need some specific range of energies. The subject that produces such energy is called “Radioactive,” while the scale of this activity and how often it is processing is called “Radioactivity.”
The energy produced in such type of radiation can take mainly two forms: 1. as a particle, and 2. as wave. There is a great deal of text involved to explain how and why this type of radiation happens, but for a simple explanatory text like this, it is better to stop here.

B. non-Ionizing Radiation.
         The second type of radiation is the most common one, and it is dealt with by every single day in our lives. This type of radiation does not cause any ionizing like the afore mentioned type. Instead it mostly propagates through (i.e. goes through) subjects and sometimes causes them to vibrate. The range of this type of radiation is wide; from cell phones, microwaves, and even light itself is a non-Ionizing radiation. Notice, however, that radiations coming from cell phones are still a matter of controversy and many researches have been done to prove or disprove the degree of harm that can be done to the brain cells by cell phones radiations. So far, the two sides of the story are equal in proving and disproving such concept which leaves the matter at a dilemma still.

         It is left to give some examples of ionizing radiations that are useful (very useful) for our health and other fields in our lives. For example, the PET scanning, used in hospitals, uses the techniques of radioactivity within the human body in order to analyze and discover the areas of malfunctioning in tissues and organs inside the human being. Also, in the field of cancer-fighting, the medical field is making an extensive use of radioactivity to fight the cancerous cells, specially with the new technology called “gamma-knife,” in which gamma waves (products of radioactivity) are used to kill the cancerous cells without any need for any complicated surgeries.
         Moreover, the radiation (natural radioactivity specifically) that is produced by the Earth itself, is said to be a main cause for the evolution of Man in many ways, mainly in his own immune system, which made the Man able to resist more and more diseases by the advent of days.

Next time you hear the word “radiation” just step back and think... is it useful or not, or how can we use it for our own benefit.