One of man’s oldest baubles, the diamond, may help protect him against his newest peril. This week the U.S. Bureau of Standards announced that diamonds, size for size, are 1,000 times more sensitive to dangerous radiation than the famous Geiger counter.
The Bureau mounts its diamonds (which must be more colorless and flawless than good grade jewelry stones) between two small brass contacts. One contact is charged with 1,000 volts of electricity. When an alpha, beta or gamma ray hits the diamond, it knocks an electron off one of the carbon atoms of which the diamond is composed. Propelled by the pressure of the 1,000 volts, the electron darts along one of the straight channels which run between the atoms of a diamond crystal. This motion sets up an electrical pulsation that can be detected easily by various standard instruments or by an ordinary telephone headset.
A diamond acts very much like a Geiger counter, whose knocked-free electrons dart across a partial vacuum. But the Bureau’s diamond counter will last longer, and it can be made much smaller than a Geiger counter. The little sensitive crystal can be tucked away in industrial equipment, or even inside the human body to measure the penetration of radiation, as in the X-ray treatment of cancer.
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