How Did Radiation Change

Improved Essays
Medicine Changed by Radiation Radiation has changed over the years and wasn’t even known to be used in medicine until after it was used in the military in World War II. It was discovered by a German scientist but then the possibilities of all the things it could be used for was discovered by a Polish-born
French scientist. Radiation changed medicine for the better by killing off cancerous, disease ridden germs and cells, this is significant because it changed the way we look at treatment. In
1895, radiation had just been discovered by Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, a professor at
Wuerzburg University in Germany. ("History of Radiography"). It was discovered by working with a cathode-ray tube in his laboratory where he discovered a fluorescent
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X-rays cause bones and other structures to cast shadows due to them being denser than skin. This allows doctors and dentists alike to spot broken bones and dental problems. X-rays and other forms of radiation have a variety of uses in therapy. They are often used to kill cancerous tissues, reduce the size of a tumor, or reduce pain. For example, “radioactive iodine (specifically iodine 131) is frequently used to treat thyroid cancer, a disease that strikes about 11,000 Americans every day.”("Uses of Radiation."). Radiation is also used for the sterilization of medical instruments. By subjecting them to beams of concentrated radiation, micrograms that cause contamination and disease can be killed. “Because this is done with high energy radiation sources using electromagnetic energy, there I no fear of residual radiation, [therefore] the instruments [can] be held without fear of radiation poisoning.”("Uses of Radioactivity”). While there is a debate that radiation has not changed medicine for the better due to a risk of radiation poisoning, this is incorrect in the fact that radiation is done with high electromagnetic energy causing the risk of radiation poisoning to go down. Also, without radiation, we would not have a way to fight cancer and kill diseases. The risk of getting radiation poisoning and it killing is far lower than the risk of cancer killing you. With the risk of cancer killing being higher,
radiation
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It is a versatile treatment, it can be used as x-rays to find things, to being used as medicine to cure or, at least, slow the rate of cancer spreading. With all the knowledge the world has today about radiation, it shows that radiation has changed medicine for the better by killing off cancerous, disease ridden tissue and cells, along with changing the way we look at treatment. From starting back in 1895 as a new ray that could pass through substances to going on to be used in the military by Marie Curie for find bullets and fragments of bombs in wounded soldiers to finally being used in medicine like it is today. With the help of Wilhelm
Conrad Roentgen and Marie Curie we now have a new and more versatile way of looking at treatment, and can help out more people than we did before the discovery of radioactive elements that led to a major advancement in radiation medicine. In today’s world of medicine and science, it is helping soldiers who are doctors out in the field, doctors in the hospital, and dentists find problems that can be resolved with the use of radiation. Now radiation is being discovered to be able to be used for even more than just medicine and x-rays, there are so many

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