Uses of Radiation in Industry and Solving Crimes

Radiation is a process where energy is emitted from the moving of

electron out of its orbit. Radiation takes part in many kinds of activities, such as

medical, science, industry and others. Radiation can also be used in solving

crimes around many places. In addition, radiations are also useful in such areas

as agriculture, archaeology, space exploration, law enforcement, geology and

many others. In this essay, I am going to discuss the uses of radiation to solve

crimes and in industrial activities.

You might wonder how radiations are used to solve crimes. Detectives

and other special agents usually search for the traces of paint, glass, hair,

gunpowder or blood after in a crime scene. These traces are being collected for

the detectives or scientists to investigate more to find out its exact makeup. To

investigate these evidences, radiation is exposed to a certain thing and then

being analyzed.

If materials are exposed to a collection of neutrons, some of the neutrons

are absorbed to the nucleus of the exposed materials. This makes the material

become radioactive because they are unstable and decay with the time. Once the

material becomes radioactive, scientists are able to see the chemical signatures

of these substances. One of the applications is useful to determine whether a

single hair found at the crime scene belongs to a certain person. Radiation can

also be used to prove whether a piece of artifact or works of art are not made of

modern materials.

The work of radiation is also used in DNA tests. There are many different

techniques in DNA profiling. The goal of every technique is to identify a unique

DNA profile. There is one method that uses a restriction enzyme to cut DNA

strands into fragments. Then the DNA is blotted with a sheet of nitrocellulose.

This sheet is later being exposed to radiation so that scientists will be able to see

the DNA profile in it.

There are a lot of uses of radiation in industry, but we are going to talk

only a few of them. With the different types of industry, there are also different

uses of radiation. In an agricultural industry, radiations are used to improve food

production. For example, plant seeds are being exposed to radiation so that it

will be able to produce a better quality of plant. Beside that, radiation is also

used in controlling insect population, which decreased the use of pesticides.

Engineers used radiation to determine the thickness of materials and a

process called radiography to detect any defect in a metal materials and

machines. Radioactive has been used to clean up toxic pollutants. Sulphur

dioxides and nitrogen oxides, for example can be removed by electron beam

radiation. Otherwise it will damage the environment. Radioactivity also happens

in spacecraft. It is used to power the spacecraft and supply the electricity to the

satellites that are sent on missions.

All around us, we can see that radiation plays an important role for the

daily life.

Bibliography

Flint, Deyanda. How DNA Testing Affect Crime. 2010. 08. 02.

http://www.ehow.com/about_6163181_dna-testing-affects-

crime.html

2010. Uses of Radiation. 2010. 08. 02. http://www.nrc.gov/about-

nrc/radiation/around-us/uses-radiation.html#industrial