University of the Philippines Manila
Biology 124 – Radiation Biology
Prof. Marla Endriga
The Atom
Transcribed by: Alyanna Ysabel L. Salvador
Atom
• Atoms are the basic units of matter and the defining structure of
elements.
Molecule
• Combining atoms of the same kind or different kinds makes
molecules.
• The kind of molecules depends on which atoms combine.
Element
• The molecule contains only one kind of atoms
• E.g. hydrogen, carbon, gold and oxygen gas
Compound
• Molecule contains two or more kinds of atoms, and are actually
linked together in a chemical bond
• E.g. water
Mixture
• The molecules are simply jumbled together (and are not
chemically combined)
• E.g. air (a mixture of oxygen and nitrogen molecules and other
gases)
What is inside the atom?
• Proton – positive electrical charge; approximately 1837 times
heavier than the electron
• Electron – negative electric charge; approximately 1837 times
lighter than a neutron or proton
• Neutron – neutral particle; has no electrical charge; has about
the same mass of a proton and an electron combined
Historical Perspective of the Atom
• Ancient Greek philosophers:
o Wondered what would happen if a piece of matter – like a
stone – was split into smaller and smaller particles
o No matter how tiny the particles became, it would be possible
to break them up into smaller particles
o Democritus: argued that no matter how hard or long you
divide a piece of matter; you will eventually come to a piece
so very small that it could not be divided or split further
§ Called this indivisible particle an atom
§ Atom – from the Greek word atomos meaning “can’t be
cut” or “indivisible”
• For thousands of years, no one had anything new or important
to say about the atom
• 1803 – British chemist and physicist John Dalton introduced his
atomic theory based on experiments
• Dalton’s Atomic Theory
o All substances are made of atoms; atoms are small particles
that cannot be created, divided nor destroyed
o Atoms join with other atoms to make new substances
o Atoms of the same element are exactly alike, while atoms of
different elements vary in weight and other properties
• Dalton imagined atoms as tiny solid balls.
How did our present-day concept of the atom evolve?
• 1897 – British chemist J.J. Thompson showed that the atom was
not indivisible after all, but was made up of even smaller parts
o Performed experiments using a cathode-ray tube
o Discovered the existence of particles that have negative
electric charges
§ called the negatively charged particles “corpuscles” (now
electrons)
o created a model (Raisin Pudding Theory) where he
described the atom as a positively charged sphere with
electrons embedded in it as far apart as possible
§ mass of positive charge = pudding
electrons = raisins
• 1911 – British physicist Ernest Rutherford carried out
experiments to test whether atoms are solid
o Bombarded a thin sheet of gold foil with tiny positively
charged particles called alpha particles (later found to be
helium nuclei)
o Examined the fluorescent screen placed behind the foil
o Found that most of the alpha particles passed right through
the gold foil. While a few were deflected
o Led to conclusion that the atom is mostly empty space with
a core or nucleus where all the positive charges are
concentrated. Electrons travel around the nucleus like
planets around the sun, but their exact places cannot be
described.
• 1913 – Danish physicist Niels Bohr proposed a model of the
atom which adopted Rutherford’s nuclear atom
o Determined that electrons are not randomly located around
the nucleus but that they travel around the nucleus in specific
shells or layers
§ Shells or layers are found at certain fixed distance from
the nucleus
o Also said that atoms absorb or give off energy as a photon
of light or radiation when the electrons move from one shell
to another
• 1932 – British physicist James Chadwick discovered the neutron
o Has about the same size as the proton but with no electrical
charge
o Discovery explained why atoms were heavier than the total
mass of their protons and electrons
• Modern model of an atom
o A result of the work of many scientists from the 1920s to the
present
o Current model says that electrons do not travel in definite
paths and the exact path of a moving electron cannot be
predicted
o There are regions inside the atom where electrons are likely
to be found. These regions are called electron clouds.
Atomic Number (Z)
• The number of protons in the nucleus of an atom
• This number determines the chemical identity of an atom
Atomic Mass/Mass Number (A)
• Equal the total number of protons (Z) and neutrons (N) in the
nucleus of an atom
Nuclide
• Any atomic species characterized by the number of protons and
number of neutrons
Isotopes
• Atoms of the same element having different number of neutrons,
in combination with the fixed number of protons
• Practically all elements have more than one isotope
• Isotopes of a given element have the same chemical properties,
but they may differ in their nuclear properties
Classification
• Stable
o Do not spontaneously emit energy in the form of rays or
particles
Half-life
• The time it takes for an original number of atoms in a sample of
radioactive material to decay or disintegrate to one half this
number
• Range from less than a second to billions of years
• Unaffected by the physical and chemical state of the radioactive
material, temperature, pressure and other physical changes

• Unstable or Radioisotope
o Unstable nuclei stabilize themselves by emitting or shooting
energy rays called gamma rays, similar to x-rays
o Others may emit particles from their nuclei and change to
different elements
o Source of instability of atoms is the unbalanced number of
protons and neutrons in their nuclei.
§ If the nucleus of an atom has too many neutrons or
protons, as compared to the optimum ratio of neutrons
to protons, then this atom becomes unstable.

Half-Lives of Some Radioactive Elements

Element Half-Life Element Half-Life
Polonium-216 0.6 seconds Californium- 2.2 years
252
Classification of Radioisotopes Iridium-131 4.9 seconds Cobalt-60 5.26 years
• Natural Sulfur-38 2 hrs 52 mins Krypton-85 10.6 years
o E.g. carbon-14, potassium-40 Technetium- 6.01 hours Hydrogen-3 12.26 years
• Artificial 99m (Tritium)
o Most produced artificially in special nuclear devices such as Sodium-24 15 hours Lead-210 22.3 years
a nuclear reactor by neutron bombardment Gold-198 2.7 days Cesium-137 30 years
Radioisotope production Radon-22 3.82 days Plutonium- 87.74 years
• Radioisotope is produced by neutron bombardment 238
Iodine-131 8 days Americium- 432.7 years
241
• Cerenkov Effect – cobalt 60 has gamma rays. When underwater, Radium-223 11.43 days Radium-226 1,600 years
it has a different velocity compared to when in air – thus Phosphorus- 14.3 days Carbon-14 5,730 years
exhibiting glow. 32
Strontium-90 28.8 days Chlorine-36 400,000 years
Do radioisotopes remain unstable or radioactive all the time? Iridium0192 74 days Uranium-235 710 million
• Unstable (radioactive) atoms undergo spontaneous decay into a years
more stable form (usually a different element) by emitting or Sulfur-35 87.2 days Potassium-40 1.28 billion
shooting out gamma rays or particles from their nucleus. years
• Ionizing radiation = rays and particles Calcium-45 164 days Uranium-238 4.5 billion
• Radioactivity – the property of radioisotopes which emit radiation years
spontaneously Cadmium-199 463 days Thorium-232 1.41 x 1010
• Radioactive Material – any material that exhibits the property of years
radioactivity
• Radioactive decay – the process of emitting ionizing radiation