Electromagentic Wave

Gamma Rays

What are Gamma Rays?

Gamma Rays are a form of electromagnetic radiation. They consist of a frequency greater than 1,019 Hz and they have very short wavelengths, shorter than 10-14 meters. The velocity of a gamma ray in a vacuum is 3x10^8 m/s or the speed of light.

Everyday Uses

Health Impacts (Pros+Cons)

Can kill cancerous cells, but can also cause various types of cancers. Gamma radiation can cause mutations in unborn babies, if mother comes in contact with harmful levels of radiation.
Overview of Gamma Irradiation Processing | STERIS Applied Sterilization Technologies

Summary of video

A company by the name of Steris Isomeric provides a sterilization and decontamination process to medical places, and other different market areas; such as food. This company uses irradiation, or gamma rays to complete their services. The items that come in shipped in boxes are placed, usually in aluminum carriers, and put onto conveyer belts. Then an operator enters the proper about of time and such into a control system and the cycle begins. Their services are for the places who do not have their own process of doing this, so they send it here.

Summary to "You Want Gamma Rays With That?"

This article's main idea was about how gamma rays are used to kill any harmful bacteria in food. In this article E. Coli is brought up as a concern, and why people use gamma rays to try a kill this off if it were present on the food. The article also speaks about the different people using it like a company owner to NASA. The company owner had a concern that his ground beef would be contaminated, so instead he just started using gamma rays to solve his concern. NASA uses it for astronaut food, before it goes into space, as indicated in the article. The process of this is explained in details from the "machine" itself to the amount of time it takes, which is just a few minutes (time can vary).