Department of Physics and Astronomy: Publications and Other Research
Robert Katz Publications
Document Type
Article
Date of this Version
March 1971
Abstract
Radiation detection and damage data from several physical, chemical, and biological systems have been analyzed by a unified track theory, in which observed effects are attributed to the interaction of secondary electrons with the medium. Gamma-ray dose-response curves are combined with calculations of the spatial dose distribution about an ion's path to yield dose-response curves (survival curves) for heavy ion bombardment, through appropriately defined parameters. Perplexing phenomena associated with high LET radiation are sorted out according to track regime (grain-count or track-width), inactivation mode (gamma-kill or ion-kill), structural complexity (elementary, cellular, multicellular), and end-point. The central problem in assigning a quality factor to radiation lies in the fact that the variables describing the bombarding particle and those describing the medium are not separable. What seems to be required is a theory of survival curves in which cells are represented by measured parameters, from which their response to a particular radiation environment may be calculated. A start has been made in this direction.
Comments
Published in: Biophysical aspects of radiation quality; proceedings of a symposium on biophysical aspects of radiation quality, held by the International Atomic Energy Agency in Lucas Heights, Australia, 8-12 March 1971 (Vienna: International Atomic Energy Agency, 1971), pp. 11–23.