Radioactivity and radiation explained

Our radioactive world

We live in a radioactive world. So did Stone Age Man: radioactivity is nothing new.

Radioactive elements in the earth's crust have weathered to form radioactive soils and seas and decayed to produce radioactive gases since the formation of the earth. External radiation from space has passed through the earth's atmosphere to fall on its surface for as long.

The earth, water and air are all radioactive and there is nothing we can do to change this. Our houses are radioactive, our schools are radioactive, our food and drink is radioactive, we are radioactive.

Radioactivity and radiation

Although radioactivity has existed since the world began, our understanding of it is very recent. We know that large and unstable atoms try to form more stable ones by losing mass. The mass is lost in the form of elementary particles (protons, neutrons and electrons).

These changes in the internal structure of the atom often cause the release of large quantities of electromagnetic energy as well. This process of spontaneous atomic disintegration and restructuring is called radioactive decay.

The streams of particles and burst of energy 'thrown out' by the atom during it are forms of radiation. Materials behaving in this way are said to possess the property of radioactivity or to be radioactive.

 

  

 

 

 

 

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