Abstract
Nature has been kind to the body compositionist, in providing the investigator with the necessary materials, and with the capacity to manufacture others, together with the required technological expertise. But the crowning achievement was nature’s construction of an isotope of potassium (40K) that is radioactive and present in sufficient quantity (0.1 µCi) to permit its estimation by specially designed scintillation counters. Knowing the isotopic abundance of 40K (0.0118%) permits one to estimate total body potassium by this means, without the need to administer anything to or to obtain samples of any sort from the subject.
Creatio anima scientiae est, instrumenta corpus.
Anon.
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© 1987 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.
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Forbes, G.B. (1987). Historical Introduction. In: Human Body Composition. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4654-1_1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-4654-1_1
Publisher Name: Springer, New York, NY
Print ISBN: 978-1-4612-9100-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-4612-4654-1
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