Basic Concepts of Radiation Biology
Ans Baeyens, Ana Margarida Abrantes, Vidhula Ahire, Elizabeth A. Ainsbury, Sarah Baatout, Bjorn Baselet, Maria Filomena Botelho, Tom Boterberg, François Chevalier, Fabiana Da Pieve, Wendy Delbart, Nina Frederike Jeppesen Edin, Cristian Fernández-Palomo, Lorain Geenen, Alexandros G. Georgakilas, Nathalie Heynickx, Aidan D. Meade, Anna Michaelidesová, Dhruti Mistry, Alegría Montoro, Carmel Mothersill, Ana Salomé Pires, Judith Reindl, Giuseppe Schettino, Yehoshua Socol, Vinodh Kumar Selvaraj, Peter Sminia, Koen Vermeulen, Guillaume Vogin, Anthony Waked, Anne‐Sophie Wozny
Abstract
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.