RADIOACTIVE ISOTOPES

Artificial radioactive isotopes are extensively used as radioactive tracers in metabolism, and to a lesser extent as radiotherapeutic agents. Rutherford in 1919 was the first to artificially produce trans-mutation by firing alpha particles into nitrogen atoms. This resulted in the immediate disintegration of the nitrogen nucleus leading to the formation of a nucleus of heavy oxygen and the expulsion of a proton. And thus, in a sense, the dream of the ancient alchemist, namely, the transmutation of elements though perhaps not in the classical one relating to the turning of the baser metals into gold, suddenly came true.