Applications of Stable and Radioactive Isotopes
The unique properties of isotopes—either the predictable decay of radioactive isotopes or the subtle mass differences of stable isotopes—enable a vast range of applications across numerous scientific fields. Radioactive isotopes, or radioisotopes, are fundamental to techniques like radiometric dating (e.g., carbon-14) for determining the age of artifacts, medical imaging (e.g., PET scans) and cancer therapy, and as tracers in industrial and agricultural processes. Meanwhile, stable isotopes serve as powerful, non-destructive probes; their varying ratios are analyzed to reconstruct past climates from ice cores, trace environmental pollutants, unravel complex metabolic pathways in biochemistry, and determine the diet and geographic origin of archaeological and food samples.