Editing Radiation (section)

== Applications ==

=== Medicine ===
{{Main|Medical radiography|Medical radiation scientist}}

Radiation and radioactive substances are used for diagnosis, treatment, and research. X-rays, for example, pass through muscles and other soft tissue but are stopped by dense materials. This property of X-rays enables doctors to find broken bones and to locate cancers that might be growing in the body.<ref>[[Radiography]]</ref> Doctors also find certain diseases by injecting a radioactive substance and monitoring the radiation given off as the substance moves through the body.<ref>[[Nuclear medicine]]</ref> Radiation used for cancer treatment is called ionizing radiation because it forms ions in the cells of the tissues it passes through as it dislodges electrons from atoms. This can kill cells or change genes so the cells cannot grow. Other forms of radiation such as radio waves, microwaves, and light waves are called non-ionizing. They do not have as much energy so they are not able to ionize cells.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Bellenir | first1 = Karen | title = [[Cancer Sourcebook]] | location = Detroit, MI | publisher = [[Omnigraphics]] | pages = 112–113 | date = 2007 | isbn = 978-0-7808-0947-5}}</ref>

=== Communication ===
All modern communication systems use forms of electromagnetic radiation. Variations in the intensity of the radiation represent changes in the sound, pictures, or other information being transmitted. For example, a human voice can be sent as a radio wave or microwave by making the wave vary to corresponding variations in the voice. Musicians have also experimented with gamma rays sonification, or using nuclear radiation, to produce sound and music.<ref name="Nuclear Music">{{cite web|last=Dunn |first=Peter |title=Making Nuclear Music |url=https://alum.mit.edu/slice/making-nuclear-music/| year=2014| publisher=Slice of MIT| access-date=29 August 2018}}</ref>

=== Science ===
Researchers use radioactive atoms to determine the age of materials that were once part of a living organism. The age of such materials can be estimated by measuring the amount of radioactive carbon they contain in a process called [[radiocarbon dating]]. Similarly, using other radioactive elements, the age of rocks and other geological features (even some man-made objects) can be determined; this is called [[Radiometric dating]]. Environmental scientists use radioactive atoms, known as [[Radioactive tracer|tracer atoms]], to identify the pathways taken by pollutants through the environment.

Radiation is used to determine the composition of materials in a process called [[neutron activation analysis]]. In this process, scientists bombard a sample of a substance with particles called neutrons. Some of the atoms in the sample absorb neutrons and become radioactive. The scientists can identify the elements in the sample by studying the emitted radiation.