How Radiation Works

Say the word "radiation" to three different people, and you'll probably get three
different reactions. Your aunt may tell you how radiation destroyed her cancer. Your neighbor
might mention the "duck and cover" procedures of his day. And your comics-loving friend will
explain how gamma rays turned Bruce Banner into The Hulk. Radiation comes in many forms
and is all around us, all the time. Sometimes it's dangerous; sometimes it's not.

Radiation is both natural and man-made. Our bodies are exposed to natural radiation
every day -- from soil and underground gases to cosmic radiation from the sun and outer space.
We're also exposed to radiation from our own inventions -- medical
procedures, televisions, cell phones and microwave ovens. Radiation isn't necessarily always
dangerous. It depends on its strength, type and the length of exposure.

Most people will tell you Marie Curie discovered radiation, along with her husband and
research partner Pierre. And that's right -- sort of. Curie actually discovered the element radium
in 1898, an accomplishment that would make her the first female recipient of the Nobel Prize.
However, three years earlier in 1895, a scientist named Wilhelm Röntgen first discovered X-
rays and the phenomenon of radioactivity (a term later coined by Curie, based on the Latin
word for "ray"). Soon after Röntgen's discovery, a French scientist named Henri Becquerel
attempted to figure out where X-rays came from, and in the process found that uranium emitted
a powerful "ray." Marie Curie based her doctoral research on Becquerel's findings, which led
to her discovery of radium.

Radiation is energy that travels in the form of waves (electromagnetic radiation) or

high-speed particles (particulate radiation). Particulate radiation happens when an unstable
(or radioactive) atom disintegrates. Electromagnetic (EM) radiation, on the other hand, has
no mass and travels in waves. EM radiation can range from very low energy to very high
energy, and we call this span the electromagnetic spectrum. Within the EM spectrum, there
are two types of radiation -- ionizing and non-ionizing. Sadly, the very thing that gave Marie
Curie everlasting life in our history books is what ultimately killed her. In the late 1890s, both
Marie and her husband Pierre began suffering various ailments. Marie suffered several
cataracts (now a known side effect of radiation) and eventually succumbed to anemia related
to radiation in her bone marrow.

Electromagnetic (EM) radiation is a stream of photons, traveling in waves.

The photon is the base particle for all forms of EM radiation. But what's a photon? It's a bundle
of energy, of light, always in motion. In fact, the amount of energy a photon carries makes it
sometimes behave like a wave and sometimes like a particle. Scientists call this wave-particle
duality. Low-energy photons (such as radio) behave like waves, while high-energy photons
(such as X-rays) behave more like particles. EM radiation can travel through empty space. This
differentiates it from other types of waves, such as sound, which need a medium to move
through. All forms of EM radiation reside on the electromagnetic spectrum, which ranks
radiation from lowest energy/longest wavelength to highest energy/shortest wavelength. The
higher the energy, the stronger, and therefore more dangerous, the radiation. The only
difference between a radio wave and a gamma ray is the energy level of the photons.

Radio: Radio waves have the longest wavelength in the electromagnetic spectrum (up to a
football field long). They are invisible to our eyes. They bring music to our radios, sound and
picture to our televisions, and carry signals to our cell phones. Cell phone waves are shorter
than radio waves, but longer than microwaves.

Microwaves: Also invisible, we use microwaves to heat our food quickly.

Telecommunications satellites use microwaves to transmit voice through the phone.
Microwave energy can penetrate haze, clouds or smoke, and thus is useful for transmitting
information. Some microwaves are used for radar, like the Doppler radar your weatherman
uses on the news. The entire universe has faint cosmic microwave background radiation --
something scientists connect to the Big Bang Theory.

Infrared: Infrared lies between the visible and invisible portions of the EM spectrum. Your
remote control uses infrared light to change the channel. We feel infrared radiation every day
via the sun's heat. Infrared photography can detect temperature differences. Snakes can actually
detect infrared radiation, which is how they are able to locate warm-blooded prey in total
darkness.

Visible: This is the only part of the electromagnetic spectrum we can see. We see the different
wavelengths in this band of the spectrum as the colors of the rainbow. The sun, for example, is
a natural source of visible waves. When looking at an object, our eyes see the color of light
reflected, and all other colors are absorbed.

Ultraviolet: Ultraviolet (UV) rays are what cause us to become sunburned. Humans can't see
UV rays, but some insects can. Our atmosphere's ozone layer blocks most UV rays. However,
as our ozone layer depletes due to use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), UV levels are increasing.
This can lead to health effects like skin cancer

X-rays: X-rays are very high-energy light waves. We're most familiar with their
use in a doctor's office, but X-rays also naturally occur in space. But don't worry,
X-rays can't penetrate from outer space to the Earth’s surface.

Gamma rays: Gamma rays have the most energy and shortest wavelength of
the entire spectrum. Nuclear explosions and radioactive atoms generate these
rays. Gamma rays can kill living cells, and medical professionals sometimes use
them to destroy cancerous cells. In deep space, gamma ray bursts occur daily,
but their origins are still a mystery.