Science: Isotopes for Research

Scientists cheered another indication that the Atomic Age was starting to roll. After long delay and soul-searching, the Manhattan District this week agreed to supply qualified customers with about 100 radioactive isotopes produced in its Oak Ridge uranium piles. For chemists, physicists and biologists the isotopes are important scientific tools.

Most crying need for them is in medicine, not to cure disease (though the isotopes may do this too), but to probe basic biological processes. Radioactive carbon 14, for example, may be fed to human beings or laboratory animals. Though present only in sub-microscopic quantities, it will announce its presence to sensitive...

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