Basic Concepts of Radiation Biology

Ans Baeyens*, Ana Margarida Abrantes, Vidhula Ahire, Elizabeth A. Ainsbury, Sarah Baatout, Bjorn Baselet, Maria Filomena Botelho, Tom Boterberg, Francois Chevalier, Fabiana Da Pieve, Wendy Delbart, Nina Frederike Jeppesen Edin, Cristian Fernandez-Palomo, Lorain Geenen, Alexandros G. Georgakilas, Nathalie Heynickx, Aidan D. Meade, Anna Jelinek Michaelidesova, Dhruti Mistry, Alegría MontoroCarmel Mothersill, Ana Salomé Pires, Judith Reindl, Giuseppe Schettino, Yehoshua Socol, Vinodh Kumar Selvaraj, Peter Sminia, Koen Vermeulen, Guillaume Vogin, Anthony Waked, Anne Sophie Wozny

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingChapterpeer-review

8 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Radiation biology is the study of the effects of ionizing radiation on biological tissues and living organisms. It combines radiation physics and biology. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the terminology and basic concepts of radiobiology to create a better understanding of the ionizing radiation interactions with a living organism. This chapter firstly describes the different types of radiation, the sources, and the radiation interactions with matter. The basic concepts of radioactivity and its applications are also included. Ionizing radiation causes significant physical and chemical modifications, which eventually lead to biological effects in the exposed tissue or organism. The physical quantities and units needed to describe the radiation are introduced here. Eventually, a broad range of biological effects of the different radiation types are addressed. This chapter concludes with a specific focus on the effects of low doses of radiation.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationRadiobiology Textbook
PublisherSpringer International Publishing
Pages25-81
Number of pages57
ISBN (Electronic)9783031188107
ISBN (Print)9783031188091
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2023.

Keywords

  • Biological effects of radiation
  • LET
  • RBE
  • Radiation interactions
  • Radiation types
  • Radioactivity

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