Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!seismo!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!nanotech From: ems@buttermilk.princeton.edu (Ed Strong) Newsgroups: sci.nanotech Subject: Re: STM nuclear reactions Message-ID: Date: 5 Nov 90 23:06:04 GMT Sender: nanotech@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Princeton University Lines: 32 Approved: nanotech@aramis.rutgers.edu In article toms@fcs260c2.ncifcrf.gov (Tom Schneider) writes: > >The discussion about STM makes me wonder whether anyone is planning on watching >individual atoms decay? Imagine putting down some radioactively labeled DNA >and observing the 32P go boom! Broken DNA! Does it leave a pit in the >surface? :-) > > Tom Schneider > National Cancer Institute > Laboratory of Mathematical Biology > Frederick, Maryland 21702-1201 > toms@ncifcrf.gov I'm not an expert, (obligatory disclaimer inserted here :-) but it seems to me there are a few problems with this scenario. You generally can't tell which individual atoms of a radioisotope are about to decay, half-life is a statistical measure of a large number of atoms. Also 32P is lighter than iron so you can't fission it. Assuming you knew where to look, normal radioactive decay of an individual atom is a comparatively tame event, compared to fission of an atom. I can't say whether it would be energetic enough to break DNA bonds. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Ed Strong, Technical Staff Member ems@princeton.edu Princeton University (609) 258-1747 35 Olden Street Department of Computer Science Princeton, NJ 08544-2087 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ [My guess is that anything ionizing could break bonds. --JoSH]