The Use of Radioisotopes

Hi in this video, I'm going to be talking about radio isotopes. So you may be asking the question, why are we talking about radio isotopes in a cell biology class. But it's because radioisotopes are used by cell biologists to monitor molecules in a variety of different ways. So first let's refresh what a radioactive isotopes they are Adams where the nucleus is unstable. So that unstable means that they have some kind of energy and that means they can release radiation. So there are three types of radiation that can be released. Um you can have alpha, beta or gamma particles and they each result in the loss of slightly different things, either protons, neutrons, electrons or photons. And this is much more for chemistry. I'm just putting it here. So you kind of get the idea in case you run across in your textbook. Um but you know, this is much more chemistry based than cell biology, but cell biologists can use different types of techniques to detect isotopes and biological materials, things like in cells or in um some types of gels that biologists runs or in filters that they use to examine proto or molecules or D. N. A. Or whatever they use. Um So they're super important in cell biology because these radioactive isotopes can be attached onto specific molecules and you can do that yourself in a laboratory or you can actually purchase them from these companies that sell materials to laboratories. There's pretty much most small molecules and a lot of proteins. You can just buy with this radioactive isotope on it and scientists use this to be able to determine the quantity of molecules in a cell, determine the location of molecules in a cell and even follow the movement in real time of a molecule in the cell. You can do it over time or in response to a chemical. So you can see that there's a variety of different uses for these radioisotopes. So an example of this is if we have this molecule, it kind of looks like D. N. A. But you can imagine it being anything and it has this isotope on it here, these like red stars. And then you can run that on variety of different materials that scientists use. This one is called a gel. Um and there's videos on that case, you're wondering what that is. And you can see you can see that there's obviously these different bands. Each of them is going to represent something different. There are different size or a different D. N. A. Or a different protein or molecule. And depending on what the experimental setup is that could tell you a lot about you know, the quantity of that molecule, the location of that molecule. You know how that molecule responds to different changes in the south. Um So radioactive isotopes, radioisotopes are extremely important cell biological tool. So with that let's now move on

Which of the following types of radiation results in the loss of an electron?

• A. Emission of alpha particles
• B. Emission of beta particles
• C. Emission of gamma particles

Which of the following characteristics can a radioisotope NOT determine?

• A. The quantity of molecules in a cell
• B. The location of molecules in the cell
• C. The size of a single molecule in the cell
• D. The movement of a molecule in the cell