Alternatives to Radioactive Tracing (1 Viewer)

[googled]

Hi Guys,

I'm working on an assignment for Bio and need to know another way of tracing elements in plants and/or animals other than radioactive tracing.

If you have any ideas please get in touch, I've been googling and can't seem to find what I'm after.

Thanks so much,
PM or post here

 

[Wooz]

I went through a few of my textbooks all i can find is radioactive c-14 tracing.
But try: http://science.uniserve.edu.au/school/curric/stage6/biol/index.html
http://hsc.csu.edu.au/biology/resources/2250/biol_site_reviews.html

 

[googled]

Thanks. Btw, you wouldn't happen to have any ideas about the use of radioactive tracers in a specific plant would you? Again, I can't seem to find anything specific which involves a specific plant, just general information.

 

[dukey]

The Use of Radioisotopes​

This is part of one of my old homework pieces. Hope it helps.

1. What is a radioisotope? Isotopes are atoms (of the same element) that have different numbers of neutrons but the same number of protons. A radioisotope is the radioactive form of an isotope.

2. How are radioisotopes used in tracing the movement of substances through plants? Give an example. Autoradiography is a relatively new technique which is used to trace the movements of certain substances around plants. It involves a few steps:
1. Carbon-14 (a radioactive isotope) is added to the carbon dioxide supply of the plant.
2. The plant takes in the carbon-14.
3. Carbon-14 is then used by the plant to photosynthesise
4. Movement of the radioisotope within the plant can be seen by taking an autoradiograph. The autoradiograph is produced by placing the plant against photographic film.

3. If a person is sick, why might a doctor suggest the use of radioisotopes? Give an example. A doctor might suggest the use of radioisotopes to see what is happening inside the body. An example would be if a person had a blood clot, the doctor might inject them with a radioisotope and it will travel around the circulatory system, stopping where the blood clot might be.

4. Why is this branch of medicine known as nuclear medicine? This branch of medicine is known as nuclear medicine because scientists and doctors who are in this profession use radioactive materials such as radioisotopes.

5 Our knowledge of biological processes has been dependent on our ability to detect what is happening in chemical reactions in the bodies of plants and animals. Explain the role radioisotopes have played in increasing this knowledge. Radioisotopes have enabled scientists to increase knowledge about chemical reactions within the bodies of animals and plants. With the development the radioisotope carbon-14, scientists are able to use autoradiography to track chemical movement within a plant or animal.

6. Our use of radioisotopes–their production, detention and analysis–has been dependent on the development of new technologies. Name and briefly describe two of these technologies. A Geiger countermeasures ionising radiation. It’s composed of a tube filled with gas which conducts electricity when a radioactive particle makes the gas conductive.
[FONT=&quot]Gamma Ray Spectrometers[/FONT][FONT=&quot] or GRS are instruments that use the gamma-ray part of the spectrum to look for the presence of 20 elements from the periodic table, and have been used in the exploration of Mars, the Eros asteroid and the Moon. Their neutron detectors can look for water and ice in the soil by measuring neutrons[/FONT]

 

[googled]

Thanks