Criteria E / how isotopes are used in science careers

Both radioisotopes and stable isotopes are primary to a wide variety of functions in medicine, where they are used in the diagnosis and treatment of illnesses. In addition, extensive functions of isotopes in medical research finds many uses in research, in chemistry, physics, biology, and geosciences, with additional needs of existing in the commercial category . Isotopes provide tools to do certain parts of jobs better, easier, quicker, more simply, or less costly than any other method available. In some cases the job could not be done without the use of isotopes. They are important tools for making measurements. A single atom can be detected using radioactive isotopes, where as chemical methods often need a million plus atoms for detection.
The discovery of stable ''isotopes" began with J. J. Thomson's identification of neon-22 in 1912 (Bievre et al., 1984). More than 90 naturally occurring elements have been found; they exist as about 270 stable isotopes—that is, forms of the elements that do not decay or send out radiation—and hundreds of radioactive isotopes. (NDT, 1996)

There is a wide variety of uses for the radioactive isotopes in medicine, industry, electricity, and research here are just a few.

uses of radioactive isotopes-
X kills cancer cells
X sterilize food and health-care products
X detect smoke (smoke detectors)
X power for space probes
(Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 2003)


This photo is one of all elements and how radioactive they are.
(Answers Corporation, 2009).