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Particle Track Structure and Biological Implications

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Handbook of Bioastronautics

Abstract

The insult from ionizing radiation to biological systems is always in the form of structured tracks of ionizations and excitations along the paths of charged particles. The track structure is primarily responsible for the potency of all ionizing radiations and for the relative effectiveness of different types of ionizing radiation. This chapter summarizes the interactions of radiation with matter and discusses microscopic features of the track structures produced by terrestrial and space radiations, with particular orientation toward the high charge and energy (HZE) particles of space radiation. Biological implications include efficient induction of complex clustered damage in DNA, as well as other correlations of damage across all levels of organization of biological system from the nanometer scale upward.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Medical Research Council, Harwell, Didcot, UK

    Dudley T. Goodhead

Authors
  1. Dudley T. Goodhead
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dudley T. Goodhead .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Medical Engineering and Science (IMES), Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Apollo Program, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Laurence R. Young

  2. Center for Space Medicine, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX, USA

    Jeffrey P. Sutton

Section Editor information

  1. Radiation Oncology, Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA

    Kathryn D. Held

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Goodhead, D.T. (2021). Particle Track Structure and Biological Implications. In: Young, L.R., Sutton, J.P. (eds) Handbook of Bioastronautics. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-12191-8_29

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