Therefore, we can say that the science-technology nexus has given us as humanity our great ability to develop as best as possible, and I think there are many tangible examples and we use them at every moment of our existence, I think there is no doubt about it, according to the above, we can say that everything artificial has been based on all those characteristics extracted from the natural.
On this occasion we continue highlighting the great usefulness of all those manifestations of energies that we know as electromagnetic radiations, where, in previous articles we have already related to X-rays, infrared and microwaves, all these radiations imperceptible to our eyes, however, we have been able to verify that despite this imperceptibility are very useful for the development of many of our essential activities, and the field of medicine represents one of these important examples.
In this opportunity we will relate to another type of electromagnetic radiation and equally imperceptible to our visual capacity, and also like X-rays, has the ability to ionize matter, in this case we are relating to the super energetic gamma rays, because they have greater energy charge than X-rays, and to observe this relationship in important to relate to some spectral fractions components of the large electromagnetic spectrum, as you can see below in the following figure 1.
Figure1. Spectral Portion of Gamma Rays
When facing the previous figure 1, we can say that the spectral fractions that are to the left of our fraction of white or visible light, the greater the amount of energy they will have, and the further to the left the more energy they will have with respect to each other, for example, X-rays have more energy charge than ultraviolet light, but gamma rays have even more energy than X-rays, therefore greater ionization capacity to the matter with which it comes into contact.
The above characteristic makes gamma rays the most energetically powerful radiations of our electromagnetic spectrum, and for their containment we can hide behind a sheet of concrete and for their penetrability in relation to white light and X-rays, see figure 2.
Figure 2. Gamma ray penetrability capability
However, this aspect of imperceptibility and ionization has not been a limitation for its use in important areas of our development and care of our body such as medicine, for example; one of its applications is to sterilize medical equipment and this thanks to its great power, in addition we can also implement it for the extermination or elimination of bacteria and insects in some food items such as meat, eggs and vegetables, among others.
Also thanks to the characteristic shown above in relation to its great capacity of penetrability, they are used in new technological equipment to perform tomographies, of course taking the necessary care because as we have said, such gamma radiation is capable of ionizing matter bringing serious consequences such as change of electrons and thus molecular change in the matter with which it acts, and can generate diseases such as cancer in the human body.
What is also important to highlight is that despite being ionizing, and with carcinogenic effect, these gamma rays are used by the technology applied in medical equipment and implemented in the treatment of some types of cancer, and this highlights the great value of our ingenuity because we can reverse any adverse effect of some phenomena in our body, as is the case of powerful gamma rays.
Until another opportunity my dear friends, I hope to count on your valuable contributions and to be able to complement the topic raised in this opportunity related to gamma rays and their great and useful application in technology.
Note: All images are my own Power Point images.
Bibliographic References
[4]Gamma Rays / Structuring the electromagnetic spectrum. Author: @rbalzan79.
