Contemporary Issues in Ionizing Radiation Science

Book Abstract

This Book ?Contemporary Issues in Ionizing Radiation Science?The industrial and medical applications of radiation have been augmented and scientific insight into mechanisms for radiation action notably progressed. In addition, the public concern about radiation risk has also grown extensively. Today the importance of risk communication among stakeholders involved in radiation-related issues is emphasized much more than any time in the past.Thus, the circumstances of radiation research have drastically changed, and the demand for a novel approach to radiation-related issues is increasing. It is thought that the publication of the book Evolution of Ionizing Radiation Research at this time would have enormous impacts on the society. The editor believes that technical experts would find a variety of new ideas and hints in this book that would be helpful to them to tackle ionizing radiation. A quantitative approach in radiation biology based on the clonogenic method and cell survival curves in various conditions are introduced. The cell survival curves seem to have universality with regard to its functional form; in other words,functional form of survival curve seems to be unchanged under various conditions including different species. Various factors affecting the radiosensitivity have been introduced to find macroscopic nature of living organisms. Mathematical models that describe cell survival curves have been presented for discussing the derivation of the mathematical form based on biological mechanism. Finally, the possibility that the structural change of chromosome affects the repair process is discussed.