2 Ergebnisse.

A history of developments in the uses of radioactivity and ionising radiation in the last century and the measures used to protect people from harmful effects. The sources of radiation exposure covered include medical uses, nuclear power generation and natural ones, such as that from radon. The book traces the evolution of our understanding of the effects of radiation on the human body, particularly those leading to cancer and hereditable dise...

The mysteries of heredity began to succumb to science in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Key steps were the adoption of the fruit fly as an experimental subject and the discovery by Hermann Muller that nuclear radiation causes mutations. These led to maps of the fly's chromosomes as a chain of genes - essentially today's model. Muller's career was nearly ruined by his socialist views and he exiled himself to Germany and then Russia. He...