Often overlooked for alpha particles is the recoil-nucleus of the alpha emitter, which has significant ionization energy of roughly 5% of the alpha particle, but because of its high electric charge and large mass, has an ultra-short range of only a few Angstroms. This can skew results significantly if one is examining the Relative Biological Effectiveness of the alpha particle in the cytoplasm, while ignoring the recoil nucleus contribution, which alpha-parent being one of numerous heavy metals, is typically adhered to chromatic material such as chromosomes.