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Some of the mutations produced thereby have turned out to be useful. Typically this is gamma radiation – in which case it is a gamma garden [1] – produced by cobalt-60. [2] The practice of plant irradiation has resulted in the development of more than 2,000 new varieties of plants, most of which are now used in agricultural production. [3]
Traditionally, gamma radiation is used on solely adult plants, and not on pollen. The irradiation of mature pollen allows mutant plants to grow without being in direct contact with gamma radiation. This discovery is in contrast to what was previously believed about gamma radiation: that it could only elicit mutations in plants and not pollen. [24]
The light-absorbing compound in the fungus cell membranes had the effect of turning the water black. [5] While there are many cases of extremophiles (organisms that can live in severe conditions such as that of the radioactive power plant), a hypothetical radiotrophic fungus would grow because of the radiation, rather than in spite of it. [6]
A gamma ray, also known as gamma radiation (symbol γ), is a penetrating form of electromagnetic radiation arising from high energy interactions like the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei or astronomical events like solar flares. It consists of the shortest wavelength electromagnetic waves, typically shorter than those of X-rays.
The process, which consists of striking plant seeds or germplasm with radiation in the form of X-rays, UV waves, heavy-ion beams, or gamma rays, essentially induce lesions of the DNA, leading to mutations in the genome. The UN has been an active participant through the International Atomic Energy Agency.
It has a half-life of 30 years, and decays by beta decay without gamma ray emission to a metastable state of barium-137 (137m Ba). Barium-137m has a half-life of a 2.6 minutes and is responsible for all of the gamma ray emission in this decay sequence. The ground state of barium-137 is stable. The photon energy (energy of a single gamma ray) of ...
Beta can be cut off by an aluminium sheet just a few millimetres thick and are electrons. Gamma is the most penetrating of the three and is a massless chargeless high-energy photon. Gamma radiation requires an appreciable amount of heavy metal radiation shielding (usually lead or barium-based) to reduce its intensity.
Gamma rays are better absorbed by materials with high atomic numbers and high density, although neither effect is important compared to the total mass per area in the path of the gamma ray. Ultraviolet (UV) radiation is ionizing in its shortest wavelengths but is not penetrating, so it can be shielded by thin opaque layers such as sunscreen ...