Radiation Research

This book has grown out of our shared experience in the development of the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL), based on the electron-positron storage ring SPEAR at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) starting in Summer, 1973. The immense potential of the photon beam from SPEAR became obvious as soon as experiments using the beam started to run in May, 1974. The rapid growth of interest in using the beam since that time and the growth of other facilities using high-energy storage rings (see Chapters 1 and 3) demonstrates how the users of this source of radiation are finding applications in an increasingly wide variety of fields of science and technology. In assembling the list of authors for this book, we have tried to cover as many of the applications of synchrotron radiation, both realized already or in the process of realization, as we can. Inevitably, there are omissions both through lack of space and because many projects are at an early stage. We thank the authors for their efforts and cooperation in producing what we believe is the most comprehensive treatment of synchrotron radiation research to date.

This book reevaluates the health risks of ionizing radiation in light of data that have become available since the 1980 report on this subject was published. The data include new, much more reliable dose estimates for the A-bomb survivors, the results of an additional 14 years of follow-up of the survivors for cancer mortality, recent results of follow-up studies of persons irradiated for medical purposes, and results of relevant experiments with laboratory animals and cultured cells. It analyzes the data in terms of risk estimates for specific organs in relation to dose and time after exposure, and compares radiation effects between Japanese and Western populations.

Applications of EPR in Radiation Research is a multi-author contributed volume presented in eight themes: I. Elementary radiation processes (in situ and low temperature radiolysis, quantum solids); II: Solid state radiation chemistry (crystalline, amorphous and heterogeneous systems); III: Biochemistry, biophysics and biology applications (radicals in biomaterials, spin trapping, free-radical-induced DNA damage); IV: Materials science (polymeric and electronic materials, materials for treatment of nuclear waste, irradiated food); V: Radiation metrology (EPR-dosimetry, retrospective and medical applications); VI: Geological dating; VII: Advanced techniques (PELDOR, ESE and ENDOR spectroscopy, matrix isolation); VIII: Theoretical tools (density-functional calculations, spectrum simulations).

Chief Scientist Dr. Antone Brooks and his Low Dose Radiation Research Program team redefined the field, applying advances in instrumentation and molecular biology from the Human Genome Project and developing new technologies to examine cellular responses. Their findings were startling. At low doses, biological reactions are unique and often unrelated to those that occur at high doses. The influential linear-no-threshold model--which predicted that damage from acute exposures can be extrapolated linearly to low dose exposures--was flawed. Small doses of radiation can have an adaptive protective effect. "Hit theory," the idea that radiation only affected cells it directly traversed, yielded to "bystander theory," which hypothesizes that cells communicate with each other and a dose to one affects others surrounding it. Low Dose Radiation describes the program's development, the scientists who made it viable, and the fundamental results, highlighting lessons learned during its lifespan.

Radiation Research, A Twentieth-Century Perspective, Volume I: Congress Abstracts is a collection of abstracts presented at the Ninth International Congress of Radiation Research convened in Toronto, Canada, organized by the Radiation Research Society and the North American Hyperthermia Group at the invitation of the International Association of Radiation Research. The Toronto venue for this congress recognizes a major role by Canadian scientists in the field of radiation research and also the strong participation of Canadian scientists in the North American Radiation Research Society. Origina ...