Which radioactive isotope is used in biological dating
16-Mar-2020 05:00
These electrons determine the chemistry of the atom.The atomic mass is the sum of the protons and neutrons.The isotopes of an element have the same number of protons in their atoms (atomic number) but different masses due to different numbers of neutrons.In an atom in the neutral state, the number of external electrons also equals the atomic number.Stable isotopes already play an important role in research today and will become even more important to research in the future.Examples of stable elements used in nuclear medicine isotopes such as carbon-13, nitrogen-15 and oxygen-18 as well as noble gas isotopes.Many important properties of an isotope depend on its mass.The total number of neutrons and protons (symbol A), or mass number, of the nucleus gives approximately the mass measured on the so-called atomic- mass-unit (amu) scale.
Stable isotopes are tools used by researchers worldwide in the diagnosis of disease, to understand metabolic pathways in humans, and to answer fundamental questions in nature.
Some radioisotopes are manufactured in a cyclotron in which protons are introduced to the nucleus resulting in a deficiency of neutrons (proton rich).