Application of Quantitative Models for the Analysis of the
Mechanisms of Protection against the Damaging Effects of
Ionizing Radiation
N. ARLEY
Abstract
A concrete mathematical model satisfying certain criteria for theoretical
models is described for the kinetics of enzyme inactivation in solution by ionizing
radiation. The model elucidates two fundamental problems in radiobiology, (a)
the problem of defining a quantitative measure of radiosensitivity, (b) the problem of distinguishing between the two basic mechanisms of the effects of radioprotecting and radio-sensitizing substances, viz. their masking effects on the
solute molecules, and their scavenging effects on the free radicals formed in the
solvent by the irradiation.
First, I wish to deplore that the experimental part of this paper, which
my experimental colleague Dr. T. BRUSTAD from my Oslo institute was
going to present, has not been completed in time for this meeting. However, for these investigations we needed about 2 mill. norw. crowns to buy
the necessary experimental facility, a millionvolt accelerator in the nanosecond irradiation range. As everybody knows, a large part of scientific
research effort nowadays has to be spent in fighting to get money to do the
research you wish to do. On this point I am happy to say that my Oslo
institute has in fact now got the necessary money from the Norwegian
government, the accelerator is being installed, and Dr. BRUSTAD is at
present in England learning how to use it. So we do hope that at the next
symposium we shall be able to present also the experimental results of the
project on which I shall report here. For I hope you will all agree that, as
recently stated by the president of the University of Uppsala, "Facts without
theories are blind, but theories without facts are empty".
I shall now start by repeating some general remarks I made at the
Wisconsin symposium in 1963 [1] to elucidate the subject of this symposium:
in what way can quantitative mathematical considerations help us to a
deeper insight into Nature's structure and functioning? In our time of
rapid technological progress and social change I think it is first of all well
to keep constantly in mind the modest remarks about our basic knowledge
of Nature which EINSTEIN made to his friend M. v. LAUE a few months
before he died:
Mechanisms of Protection against the Damaging Effects of
Ionizing Radiation
N. ARLEY
Abstract
A concrete mathematical model satisfying certain criteria for theoretical
models is described for the kinetics of enzyme inactivation in solution by ionizing
radiation. The model elucidates two fundamental problems in radiobiology, (a)
the problem of defining a quantitative measure of radiosensitivity, (b) the problem of distinguishing between the two basic mechanisms of the effects of radioprotecting and radio-sensitizing substances, viz. their masking effects on the
solute molecules, and their scavenging effects on the free radicals formed in the
solvent by the irradiation.
First, I wish to deplore that the experimental part of this paper, which
my experimental colleague Dr. T. BRUSTAD from my Oslo institute was
going to present, has not been completed in time for this meeting. However, for these investigations we needed about 2 mill. norw. crowns to buy
the necessary experimental facility, a millionvolt accelerator in the nanosecond irradiation range. As everybody knows, a large part of scientific
research effort nowadays has to be spent in fighting to get money to do the
research you wish to do. On this point I am happy to say that my Oslo
institute has in fact now got the necessary money from the Norwegian
government, the accelerator is being installed, and Dr. BRUSTAD is at
present in England learning how to use it. So we do hope that at the next
symposium we shall be able to present also the experimental results of the
project on which I shall report here. For I hope you will all agree that, as
recently stated by the president of the University of Uppsala, "Facts without
theories are blind, but theories without facts are empty".
I shall now start by repeating some general remarks I made at the
Wisconsin symposium in 1963 [1] to elucidate the subject of this symposium:
in what way can quantitative mathematical considerations help us to a
deeper insight into Nature's structure and functioning? In our time of
rapid technological progress and social change I think it is first of all well
to keep constantly in mind the modest remarks about our basic knowledge
of Nature which EINSTEIN made to his friend M. v. LAUE a few months
before he died: