Isotopes: A Very Short Introduction

Description

In this Very Short Introduction, Rob Ellam explains how isotopes have proved enormously important across all the sciences and in archaeology. Radioactive isotopes may be familiar from their use in nuclear weapons, nuclear power, and in medicine, as well as in carbon dating. They have been central to establishing the age of the Earth and the origins of the solar system. Combining previous and new research, Ellam provides an overview of the nature of stable and radioactive isotopes, and considers their wide range of modern applications.;Identical outsides ... different insides -- Isotopic clocks: the persistence of carbon -- You are what you eat ... plus a few per mil -- Measuring isotopes: counting the atoms - Physics heal thyself: isotopes in medicine -- Measuring isotopes: mass spectrometers -- Reconstructing the past and weathering the future -- Scratching the surface with cosmogenic isotopes -- Uranium, thorium, and their daughters -- Probing the Earth with isotopes -- Cosmic stopped clocks. Identical outsides ... different insides -- Isotopic clocks: the persistence of carbon -- You are what you eat ... plus a few per mil -- Measuring isotopes: counting the atoms - Physics heal thyself: isotopes in medicine -- Measuring isotopes: mass spectrometers -- Reconstructing the past and weathering the future -- Scratching the surface with cosmogenic isotopes -- Uranium, thorium, and their daughters -- Probing the Earth with isotopes -- Cosmic stopped clocks.