Abstract
The history of nuclear medicine—a branch of medicine dealing with radioactive materials and chemicals/die—is rich with the contributions from gifted scientists across different disciplines: physics, chemistry, engineering, and medicine [1–5]. The multidisciplinary nature of nuclear medicine makes it difficult for medical historians to determine the birth date of nuclear medicine. Many historians, however, consider the discovery of artificially produced radioisotopes, used for nuclear radiation therapy, which is a part of nuclear radiation physics as the most significant milestone in nuclear medicine. Indeed, nuclear radiation physics made a dramatic entry into medicine with the discovery of X-rays and natural radioactivity more than a century ago, and the potential for medical imaging and therapy based on these discoveries was very quickly recognized [6]. Nuclear radiation associated with nuclear energy is referred to as ionizing radiation. Figure 1.1 shows the schematic of nonionizing radiation and ionizing radiation and their uses in different fields.
Published Version
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