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When radiation deposits enough energy in organic tissue to cause ionization, this tends to break molecular bonds, and thus alter the molecular structure of the irradiated molecules. Less energetic radiation, such as visible light, only causes excitation, not ionization, which is usually dissipated as heat with relatively little chemical damage ...
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.
Radiation is a moving form of energy, classified into ionizing and non-ionizing type. [4] Ionizing radiation is further categorized into electromagnetic radiation (without matter) and particulate radiation (with matter). [4] Electromagnetic radiation consists of photons, which can be thought of as energy packets, traveling in the form of a wave ...
Ionizing radiation is generally harmful and potentially lethal to living things but can have health benefits in radiation therapy for the treatment of cancer and thyrotoxicosis. Its most common impact is the induction of cancer with a latent period of years or decades after exposure.
Ionizing radiation may be used to treat other cancers, but this may, in some cases, induce a second form of cancer. [74] Radiation can cause cancer in most parts of the body, in all animals, and at any age, although radiation-induced solid tumors usually take 10–15 years, and can take up to 40 years, to become clinically manifest, and ...
Radiation embrittlement results in a reduction of the energy to fracture, due to a reduction in strain hardening (as hardening is already occurring during irradiation). This is motivated for very similar reasons to those that cause radiation hardening; development of defect clusters, dislocations, voids, and precipitates.
Visible light (and near-infrared light) is typically absorbed and emitted by electrons in molecules and atoms that move from one energy level to another. This action allows the chemical mechanisms that underlie human vision and plant photosynthesis. The light that excites the human visual system is a very small portion of the electromagnetic ...
Radiation reaching a plant contains entropy as well as energy, and combining those two concepts the exergy can be determined. This sort of analysis is known as exergy analysis or second law analysis, and the exergy represents a measure of the useful work, i.e., the useful part of radiation which can be transformed into other forms of energy.