In 1896, Becquerel discovered the natural radioactivity in potassium uranyl sulphate. Since then, Pierre and Marie Curie, E. Rutherford and F. Soddy all made tremendous contributions to the discovery of many other radioactive elements. The work of all these scientists has shown that all elements found in nature with an atomic number greater than 83 (bismuth) are radioactive. Artificial radioactivity was first reported by I. Curie and F. Joliot in 1934. These scientists irradiated boron and aluminium targets with a particles from polonium and observed positrons emitted from the target even after removal of the a particle source. This discovery of induced or artificial radioactivity opened up a brand new field of tremendous importance. Around the same time, the discovery of the cyclotron, deuteron and neutron by various scientists facilitated the discovery of many more artificial radioactivities. At present time more than 2700 radionuclides have been produced artificially in the cyclotron, the nuclear reactor, the neutron generator and linear accelerator. Radiopharmaceuticals are drugs that contain a radionuclide and are used for imaging if the radionuclide is a photon emitter (gamma-g or positron-b+) or for therapy if the radionuclide is a particle emitter (alpha-a or beta-b- or Auger/conversion e-). / Prof. A. Roodt
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:uj/uj:7205 |
| Date | 14 May 2008 |
| Creators | Kemp, Gerdus |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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