Nuclear Medicine
 Nuclear
medicine is the medical specialty that uses internally administered
radioactive materials, called radioisotopes, to help diagnose and
treat a wide variety of diseases.
As part of World War II's top secret Manhattan Project, the building
of nuclear reactors at Oak Ridge, Tennessee, eventually led to a
new, cheaper source of medical radioisotopes after the war ended
in August 1945. The Atomic Energy Act, passed by Congress on August
1, 1946, created the Atomic Energy Commission. This act enabled
the peaceful production of medical isotopes in an Oak Ridge reactor.
The modern era of nuclear medicine had begun.
The Early Years:
European Beginnings
As with most discoveries and inventions,
the past work of many paved the way to today. |
| Henri Becquerel
(1852-1908)
French Physicist discovered radioactivity in 1896. More
|
 |
 |
Wilhelm Röentgen
(1845-1923)
German physicist who discovered X-rays in 1895. More
|
| Pierre
Curie
(1859-1906)
French physicist who, along with his wife Marie Sklodowska
Curie, isolated polonium and radium in 1898.
|
|
 |
Marie Sklodowska Curie
(1867-1934)
The winner of two Nobel Prizes for her achievements in physics
and chemistry. More
|
| Revigorator
After its discovery by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898, radium
was considered a "cure-all" until the early 1920s.
More
|
 |
20th
Century Nuclear Medicine Pioneers |
| Georg Von
Hevesey
(1859-1906)
Hungarian-Danish chemist who won the 1943 Nobel Prize in
chemistry for developing radioactive isotopes as laboratory
tracers. More
|
|
 |
Ernest O. Lawrence
(1901-1958)
American physicist who won the 1939 Nobel Prize in physics
for the invention of the cyclotron. More
|
|
Glenn T.
Seaborg (1912-1999) and John J. Livingood
Glenn T. Seaborg and John J. Livingood departing the University
of California at Berkeley through Sather Gate. Along with
Fred Fairbrother, they first produced iron-59 in 1937. More
|
|
 |
Emilio Segre
(1905-1989)
Italian physicist who was co-winner of the 1959 Nobel Prize
in physics for his discovery of the antiproton. Working with
Seaborg, they discovered technetium-99m in 1938. More
|
|
Marshall Brucer
(1913-1994)
A "Father of Nuclear Medicine" and first president
of the Society of Nuclear Medicine. More
|
|
 |
Hal Anger
American inventor of the scintillation scanning camera in
1958. More
|
|
