A Year of Isotopes

One year ago last week the Clinton Laboratories at Oak Ridge, Tenn. began selling radioactive isotopes made in its uranium pile. Already, these atomic by-products have had important influences on U.S. science, and have made possible many hitherto impossible research jobs.

Telltale Tracers. Many radioisotopes are so short-lived that they must be rushed to their destinations by air and used at once, before their radioactivity has been frittered away. The Clinton Laboratories pop them into stainless steel and lead containers (weighing up to 1,600 Ibs.) and speed them by truck to the Knoxville airport. Prices vary widely. Carbon 14, one of the big sellers, costs $50 per millicurie* (if made by the old-fashioned cyclotron method, it would cost $1,000,000). In the past year Oak Ridge made 1,092 shipments to 161 U.S. users, none to foreign countries.

Most of the isotopes have been used as "tracers." Radioactive phosphorus, for instance, has exactly the same chemical properties as ordinary phosphorus. So it can be made into phosphorus compounds and fed to plants or experimental animals. Wherever it goes it betrays its presence by telltale radioactivity. Thus, biologists can use it to measure the amount of phosphorus-containing protein which moves out of the nucleus of a microscopic living cell. Without radiophosphorus, such an experiment would be impossible. Many researchers, hoping to learn how disease germs enter the body and how they do their damage, are tagging living bacteria with radioactive phosphorus.

All sorts of scientists are busy with tracers, and constantly finding new jobs for them. Examples:

P: At State College of Washington, Dr. Orlin Biddulph is feeding radioactive iron to plants, to observe their slow and intricate circulatory systems.

P: Dr. R. E. Dyer of the U.S. Public Health Service tags penicillin molecules with radioactive sulphur, then traces the drug through the human body to find out just where it goes and what eventually happens to it.

P: Dr. John T. Burwell Jr. of M.I.T. uses bearings made of radioactive steel to investigate the basic facts of friction. He can tell if one hundred-billionth of an ounce of metal is transferred from one bearing surface to another.

Essential Skill. Radioisotopes are ticklish things to handle; tiny specks of some of them can kill. Only skilled scientists can handle these new tools with safety. Such skill is spreading rapidly, and as it spreads, the U.S. is acquiring scientific know-how-which is far more valuable than the perishable "secret" of the Bomb.

In a report on radioisotopes, the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission devoted one sentence to this matter: ". . . should an atomic war occur, it would be essential that as many scientists as possible be trained in the technique of working with radioactive material."

* The quantity which emits the same number of particles per second as one milligram of pure radium element.

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