Skip Navigation


Radiation Protection Dosimetry Advance Access originally published online on February 2, 2007
Radiation Protection Dosimetry 2006 122(1-4):3-15; doi:10.1093/rpd/ncl498
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
122/1-4/3    most recent
ncl498v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in ISI Web of Science
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Search for citing articles in:
ISI Web of Science (5)
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Goodhead, D. T.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Goodhead, D. T.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

INVITED PAPER

Energy deposition stochastics and track structure: what about the target?

Dudley T. Goodhead*

MRC Radiation and Genome Stability Unit, Harwell, Didcot, Oxfordshire OX11 0RD, UK

* Corresponding author: d.goodhead{at}har.mrc.ac.uk

ABSTRACT


  Abstract

The broad field of microdosimetry, as reflected in the proceedings of the 13 previous symposia in this series, has been largely concerned with the microscopic stochastics of energy deposition from ionising radiations of different qualities, the ways in which these can be described and the information that they can provide towards mechanistic understanding of the biological effects of radiation and for practical applications. Directions of the research have been strongly influenced by technical developments at particular times, most notably the tissue-equivalent proportional counter and later Monte Carlo track-structure simulation methods. Essential to the research have been evolving notions as to characteristics of the relevant biological targets, and in particular their sizes and structures in relation to the microscopic features of the radiation. Over the decades since the first Symposium on Microdosimetry, in 1967, emphasis has fluctuated from key targets being assumed to be of nanometre dimensions, then up to one micrometer, ten micrometers, and then back again to a few nanometres. Some of these historical threads are traced through the successive symposia, culminating in current emphasis on the predominant importance of clustered damage in DNA, first revealed by track-structure simulations, but tempered by recognition also of the contribution that novel ‘non-targeted’ effects may play in the overall biological consequences of radiation.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Radiat Prot DosimetryHome page
D. T. Goodhead
Understanding and characterisation of the risks to human health from exposure to low levels of radiation
Radiat Prot Dosimetry, November 1, 2009; 137(1-2): 109 - 117.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]


Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.