Simple Info About Radiation

Let us begin with answering the question on what is radiation? Generally speaking, radiation is a source of energy that has the ability of infiltrating any object and can be taken up by that object. Many people would think that radiation is a piece of rock with a green glow that can cause certain effects to the human body and the environment. There is some truth to that but radiation is something more than what comic books tell us.

To help us further understand what is radiation, let us know the two kinds of radiation. The first one is called ionizing radiation and is the most commonly referred kind of radiation. Ionizing radiation is a kind of radiation that has minute particles with their own energy supply that has the ability to take away an electron from a molecule or atom. The by-product of this removal is called free radicals and these are known to cause some biological effects on the human body and also the environment.

non ionizing radiation on the other hand is the exact opposite of ionizing radiation. It does not have enough energy to take away an electron instead it has sufficient energy to excite the electrons. Again, like ionizing radiation, it too has side effects to the human body and the environment. Some known examples are microwaves, radio waves, infrared and visible light.



In the face of the many possible health threats in the use of radiation, the world still needs and has many uses for it. In medicine, it is used in diagnostics, treatments and medical research. A common example is the x-ray and CT-scan which use radiation to visualize bones and body parts. The x-ray and CT scan use radiation to capture images of the inside of the body while radiation therapy is used to treat many kinds of diseases like cancer.

Radiation has also found its way in communication. All types of recent telecommunication systems and devices use electromagnetic radiation to send out data. It is the difference of intensity of the radiation that helps deliver that data into an understandable form like pictures and sounds. Another application is in the field of science. Science also has many uses with this kind of energy especially in the determining the age of an object through the process known as carbon dating.

But the most famous use of radiation is nuclear radiation. It can make life easy and also take it away in a blink of an eye. It has been applied in many countries throughout the world like powering a submarine to providing energy to a country. And it has also been used in the nuclear bomb which has already seen in action in the bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Indeed, radiation is a very useful and important resource in the modern world. It has the potential to make a comfortable life and also destroy it.