News tagged with ionization
Ultrasound can reliably diagnose hip dysplasia at age 6 months
Developmental dislocation (dysplasia) of the hip (DDH) is a common congenital condition in which a child's upper thighbone is dislocated from the hip socket. The condition can be present at birth or develop during a child's ...
Feb 09, 2012 |
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Experts offer pointers for optimizing radiation dose in pediatric CT
An article in the January issue of the Journal of the American College of Radiology summarizes methods for radiation dose optimization in pediatric computed tomography (CT) scans. Approximately seven to eight million CT exa ...
Jan 06, 2012 |
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New take on impacts of low dose radiation
Researchers with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE)'s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab), through a combination of time-lapse live imaging and mathematical modeling of a special line of ...
Dec 20, 2011 |
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Time to test assumptions about health effects that guide risk assessment: toxicologist
Governments and the nuclear industry have failed to address serious data gaps and untested assumptions guiding exposure limits to Cesium (Cs)-137 released in the Chernobyl accident in 1986 and this year's incident at Fukushima, ...
Nov 21, 2011 |
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Molecular corkscrew
Scientists from the universities of Zurich and Duisburg-Essen have discovered a specific function of the protein p97/VCP. They demonstrate that the protein repairs DNA breaks like a corkscrew, a repair mechanism that could ...
Nov 08, 2011 |
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Hubble mosaic of the Galactic center
(PhysOrg.com) -- This NASA Hubble Space Telescope infrared mosaic image represents the sharpest survey of the Galactic Center to date. It reveals a new population of massive stars and new details in complex ...
Space & Earth / Space Exploration
Oct 10, 2011 |
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Clocking the mosh pit of interstellar space
(PhysOrg.com) -- The space between the stars in the Milky Way and all other galaxies is full of dust and gas, the raw materials from which stars and planets are made.
Oct 05, 2011 |
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New discovery sheds light on the ecosystem of young galaxies
(PhysOrg.com) -- A team of scientists, led by Michael Rauch from the Carnegie Observatories, has discovered a distant galaxy that may help elucidate two fundamental questions of galaxy formation: How galaxies ...
Aug 29, 2011 |
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Astrophysicists identify missing fuel for galactic star formation
(PhysOrg.com) -- The Milky Way will have the fuel to continue forming stars, thanks to massive clouds of ionized gas raining down from its halo and intergalactic space. This is the conclusion of a new study ...
Aug 25, 2011 |
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Melanin's 'trick' for maintaining radioprotection studied
Sunbathers have long known that melanin in their skin cells provides protection from the damage caused by visible and ultraviolet light. More recent studies have shown that melanin, which is produced by multitudes of the ...
Aug 23, 2011 |
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Short latencies shown for cancer in young workers with exposures to electro-magnetic fields
A study conducted by Hebrew University researchers has found that that there can be very short latency periods between the time of exposure and development of cancer in workers in tasks with intense or prolonged exposure ...
Aug 15, 2011 |
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Fusion diagnostic sheds light on plasma behavior at EAST
An instrument developed by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) has enabled a team at the EAST fusion experiment in China to observe--in startling detail--how a particular ...
Aug 05, 2011 |
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The genome guardian's dimmer switch: Regulating p53 is a matter of life or death
Scientists at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have found clues to the functioning of an important damage response protein in cells. The protein, p53, can cause cells to stop dividing or even to commit suicide when ...
Jun 30, 2011 |
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MR enterography as effective as CT in diagnosing Crohn's disease, reduces radiation exposure
A new study from Rhode Island Hospital has found that MR enterography (MRE) without the use of an anti-peristaltic agent were as reliable as CT enterography (CTE) in determining the presence of Crohn's disease. Additionally, ...
Jun 15, 2011 |
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High-impact radiopeptide therapy halts neuroendocrine cancer
Research introduced at SNM's 58th Annual Meeting could be a sign of hope for patients with neuroendocrine cancer not responding well to standard therapies. Most radiotherapies use medical isotopes that emit beta radiation. ...
Jun 06, 2011 |
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Ionization
Ionization is the process of converting an atom or molecule into an ion by adding or removing charged particles such as electrons or other ions. This is often confused with dissociation. A substance may dissociate without necessarily producing ions. As an example, the molecules of table sugar dissociate in water (sugar is dissolved) but exist as intact neutral entities. Another subtle event is the dissociation of sodium chloride (table salt) into sodium and chlorine ions. Although it may seem as a case of ionization, in reality the ions already exist within the crystal lattice. When salt is dissociated, its constituent ions are simply surrounded by water molecules and their effects are visible (e.g. the solution becomes electrolytic). However, no transfer or displacement of electrons occurs whatsoever. Actually, the chemical synthesis of salt involves ionization.
The process of ionization works slightly differently depending on whether an ion with a positive or a negative electric charge is being produced. A positively charged ion is produced when an electron bonded to an atom (or molecule) absorbs the proper amount of energy to escape from the electric potential barrier that originally confined it, thus breaking the bond and freeing it to move. The amount of energy required is called the ionization energy. A negatively charged ion is produced when a free electron collides with an atom and is subsequently caught inside the electric potential barrier, releasing any excess energy.
In general, ionization can be broken down into two types: sequential ionization and non-sequential ionization. In classical physics, only sequential ionization can take place; refer to the Classical ionization section for more information. Non-sequential ionization violates several laws of classical physics; refer to the Quantum ionization section.
For more information about Ionization, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
