DURING THE FIRST four
decades of this century,
many advances in medical
radiation uses came from gradual
improvements in equipment and
techniques. The availability of X-ray
machines in military hospitals during
World War I convinced many
physicians of the usefulness of X-ray
studies in detection of somatic problems,
as well as trauma. A chest
X ray became the standard method
of diagnosing tuberculosis. About all
that could be offered the active
tubercular patient was nursing care,
but isolation of such patients helped
to break the spread of the highly
contagious disease to other family
members and co-workers. Tuberculosis
was the target of the first X-ray
population screening efforts.
The creation of artificial isotopes
in the 1930s by Frédéric Joliot and
Irene Curie, daughter of Pierre and
Marie, opened new dimensions in
radiation science. Soon, Ernest
Lawrence was making artificial isotopes
in the cyclotron of the Donner