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Nuclear medicine personal statement
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History of Nuclear Medicine
Introduction
The history of Nuclear medicine has a lot of importance and made a significant improvement to today’s medicine. Nuclear medicine has made genetic therapy a success and improved the rate of surviving cancer a lot more likely than before. There is no real birthdate for nuclear medicine according to medical historians and this is due to Nuclear medicine multidisciplinary nature. However, there is a given approximate range of its birthdate, which was between 1934 and 1946. In 1934, the artificial radioactivity was discovered, and in 1946, radionuclides were produced by the Oak Ridge National Laboratory for medical use. Through this article, the following would be discussed; the achievements and great discoveries that helped evolve Nuclear Medicine, the important uses for Nuclear Medicine, and the growth and expansion of Nuclear Medicine outside North America.
Achievements
The following dates are important achievement’s that helped Nuclear Medicine to improve and overcome milestones that once appeared impossible to achieve.
• In 1669, phosphorus was discovered by H. Brand. 4
• In 1896, mysterious rays from uranium were discovered by H. Becquerel. 2
• In 1934, artificially produced radioisotopes were discovered by Frédéric Joliot-Curie and Irène Joliot-Curie, which was considered the most significant milestone Nuclear Medicine has achieved to historians. 1
• In 1937, technetium-99m was discovered by C. Perrier and E. Segre. It is a radionuclide, and was first discovered as an artificial element that was used to fill space number 43 in the periodic table. 1
• In 1939, strontium-89 was evaluated to be used in treating pain in cancer. 3
• In 1938, iodine-131 and cobalt-60 isotopes were discovered by J. Livingood and G. Seaborg. 2
• In 1946, radionuclides were produced by Oak Ridge National Laboratory.
• In 1971, Nuclear Medicine was
the effective doses from diagnostic CT procedures are typically estimated to be in the range of 1 to 10 mSv. This range is not much less than the lowest doses of 5 to 20 mSv estimated to have been received by some of the Japanese survivors of the atomic bombs. These survivors, who are estimated to have experienced doses slightly larger than those encountered in CT, have demonstrated a small but increased radiation-related excess relative risk for
The contributions of several doctors, researchers, and scientists helped improve the health of the growing population. In 1850 the average life expectancy was 42 years. By 1910 the average life expectancy had risen to nearly 55 years. Between 1850 and 1910 there were several advances in the medical field. The introduction of genes, white blood cells, blood groups, insulin, rubber gloves, aspirin, and vitamins and the discoveries of Pasteur, Charcot, Halsted, Zirm, Lister, and Koch were the starting point of an international fight against disease.
Strontium was discovered by Adair Crawford, an Irish chemist, in 1790 while studying the mineral witherite (BaCO3). When he mixed witherite with hydrochloric acid (HCl), he did not get the results he expected. He assumed that his sample of witherite was contaminated with an unknown mineral, a mineral he named strontianite (SrCO3). Strontium was first isolated by Sir Humphry Davy, an English chemist, in 1808 through the electrolysis of a mixture of strontium chloride (SrCl2) and mercuric oxide (HgO). Strontium reacts vigorously with water and quickly tarnishes in air, so it must be stored out of contact with air and water. Due to its extreme reactivity to air, this element always naturally occurs combined with other elements and compounds. Strontium is very
The role of the radiologist is one that has undergone numerous changes over the years and continues to evolve a rapid pace. Radiologists specialize in the diagnoses of disease through obtaining and interpreting medical images. There are a number of different devices and procedures at the disposal of a radiologist to aid him or her in these diagnoses’. Some images are obtained by using x-ray or other radioactive substances, others through the use of sound waves and the body’s natural magnetism. Another sector of radiology focuses on the treatment of certain diseases using radiation (RSNA). Due to vast clinical work and correlated studies, the radiologist may additionally sub-specialize in various areas. Some of these sub-specialties include breast imaging, cardiovascular, Computed Tomography (CT), diagnostic radiology, emergency, gastrointestinal, genitourinary, Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), musculoskeletal, neuroradiology, nuclear medicine, pediatric radiology, radiobiology, and Ultrasound (Schenter). After spending a vast amount of time on research and going to internship at the hospital, I have come to realize that my passion in science has greatly intensified. Furthermore, both experiences helped to shape up my future goals more prominently than before, which is coupled with the fact that I have now established a profound interest in radiology, or rather nuclear medicine.
The Beryllium element, an alkaline earth metal which belongs to group II of the periodic table, was first discovered in 1798 by L.M. Vauquelin. Vauquelin,a French chemist, was doing work with aluminum and noticed a white powder that was nothing like that of aluminum or any of its derivatives. Vauquelin named this mystery powder, gluinium because of its sweet taste was like that of glucose. In 1828, Wohler, a German metallurgist reduced it to its metallic form and renamed it beryllium.(figure 2)
Technetium, as with other radioactive material there is the chance of cancer, and other health conditions from exposure to radioactivity.
Radiology is one of the few so-called “physical-science”-based fields of medicine, making it a challenging and rewarding application of an academic interest in science. It combines advanced knowledge of human physiology with principles of atomic physics and nuclear decay, electricity and magnetism, and both organic and inorg...
After the United States developed the atomic at the end of World War II, interest in nuclear technology increased exponentially. People soon realized that nuclear technology could be used for electricity, as another alternative to fossil fuels. Today, nuclear power has its place in the world, but there is still a lot of controversy over the use of nuclear energy. Things such as the containment of radiation and few nuclear power plant accidents have given nuclear power a bad image. However, nuclear power is a reliable source of energy because it has no carbon emissions, energy is available at any time, little fuel is needed for a lot of energy, and as time goes on, it is becoming safer and safer.
The nuclear inventions during the Cold War made wars suicidal and indestructible for the first time. Initially, the breaking point of the divergence in the nuclear arms race was when President Truman tried to scare Joseph Stalin with the development of the atomic bomb. The attempts to create the atomic bomb succeeded and President Truman took advantage to frighten Stalin at the Potsdam Conference. As a result, Stalin had spies who notified him of the success of the atomic bomb. This pursued Stalin to create his own bomb (Foreign Relations). The two leaders’ realization of their conflicting political ideologies accelerated the race for nuclear weapons.
Uranium, a radioactive element, was first mined in the western United States in 1871 by Dr. Richard Pierce, who shipped 200 pounds of pitchblende to London from the Central City Mining District. This element is sorta boring but I found something interesting, they used it to make an an atomic bomb in the Cold War. In 1898 Pierre and Marie Curie and G. Bemont isolated the "miracle element" radium from pitchblende. That same year, uranium, vanadium and radium were found to exist in carnotite, a mineral containing colorful red and yellow ores that had been used as body paint by early Navajo and Ute Indians on the Colorado Plateau. The discovery triggered a small prospecting boom in southeastern Utah, and radium mines in Grand and San Juan counties became a major source of ore for the Curies. It was not the Curies but a British team working in Canada which was the first to understand that the presence of polonium and radium in pitchblende was not due to simple geological and mineral reasons, but that these elements were directly linked to uranium by a process of natural radioactive transmutation. The theory of radioactive transformation of elements was brilliantly enlarge in1901 by the New Zealand physicist Ernest Rutherford and the English chemist Frederick Soddy at McGill University in Montreal. At dusk on the evening of November 8, 1895, Wilhelm Rontgen, professor of physics at the University of Wurzburg in Germany, noticed a cathode tube that a sheet of paper come distance away. He put his hand between the tube and the paper, he saw the image of the bones in his hand on the paper.
Astatine (85At) and Francium (87Fr) are both rare elements found in nature, and are highly radioactive. Astatine was produced by Dale R. Carson, K.R. MacKenzie and Emilio Segrè, by accelerating Bismuth ions in a device called “Cyclotron”, but also found in the waste uranium. Francium was discovered by Marguerite Catherine Perey, a French chemist in 1939, and it is found in its purest form in nature, but is really scarce in the Earth’s crust.
The inevitable discovery of atomic power started back in 1898. According to Fetter-Vorm, “The chemist Marie Curie and her husband, Pierre, discovered the elements polonium and radium, which both emitted a mysterious energy. They called this energy radioactivity”(4). By 1911 a British physicist discovered
I began my research by using the internet. Finding many helpful websites, I expanded my research by going to the Herrick District Library and the Hope College Van Wylen Library in my home town of Holland, Michigan. My most revealing research was the interview I arranged by phone with Dr. Michael Baden, a pathologist who worked with Alexander Gettler as a medical student. Dr. Baden revealed many interesting things about the era in which Gettler lived, his personality, and the importance of his work. The “Radium Girls” case was a heart-rending, attention grabbing story that Dr. Baden had witnessed himself. The glowing sheet of radioactive film during the Radium Girls case was an astounding detail that Dr. Baden had seen. Though the bones of the dead women that
The impact of nuclear power on the modern world has improved Various sectors of the economy and society .i.e. Food and Agriculture, Insect control, Food Preservation, Water Resources, Military, Medicine, Research and Industry. “In 1911 George de Hevesy conducted the first application of a radioisotope. At the time de Hevesy was a young Hungarian student working in Manchester with naturally radioactive materials. Not having much money he lived in modest accommodation and took his meals with his landlady. He began to suspect that some of the meals that appeared regularly might be made from leftovers from the preceding days or even weeks, but he could never be sure. To try and confirm his suspicions de Hevesy put a small amount of radioactive material into the remains of a meal. Several days later when the same dish was served again he used a simple radiation detection instrument - a gold leaf electroscope - to check if the food was radioactive. It was, and de Hevesy's suspicions were confirmed.
One of the greatest events of twentieth century was the use of radioisotope as a source of energy and as medical and industrial tools. Using radioactivity has been a global issue owing to its very nature. When it is used for peaceful purposes, it is a triumph of science because it can solve energy problems in the form of nuclear energy but the side effects in the form of harmful radiation and harmful radioactive waste is the real limitations of science. This essay will attempt to analyze the application of science in the use of radioactivity and radioactive isotopes and how science is not so effective in dealing with the side effects.