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Brief Description of Goals

General

This experiment will test the effect of different levels and type of radioactivity in radioisotopes implemented in soil of plants on bean plant growth and development. This is significant because these radioisotopes are utilized in everyday life including the use of Am-241 in smoke detectors and medical diagnostics; Cs-137 in cancer treatment; and Sr-90 in bone cancer treatment and eye treatment.

Cosmic Ray Detector

This website provides in-depth directions on how to construct a cosmic ray detector, and although not all of the materials are available, it's instructions provide us with a backbone from which we can design our own detector [1]

The purpose of this detector is to establish an uncertainty of the fluctuation of cosmic radiation which contributes to the uncertainty of the overall radiation effecting the plants being tested. It also provides a method to check the dosage of the varying types of radiation from the radioisotopes.

Radioactive Isotopes

Source	Initial Activity	Input Date	Current Activity	Radioactive Particle Distribution
Bi-210	12 μCi	11/3/1972	0 μCi	Alpha and very low Gamma
Cs-137	2.3 μCi	7/1/1988	1.3 μCi	Gamma and Beta
Cs-137	17.8 μCi	10/15/1965	5.92 μCi	Gamma and Beta
Cs-137	3.86 μCi	10/15/1965	1.28 μCi	Gamma and Beta
UO2 - Ore	(1.90 g)			Alpha and Beta
Am-241	0.1 μCi	10/1965	0.09 μCi	Primarily emits alpha, but also gamma
Co-60	unknown			Gamma
Ru-106	5.5 μCi	2/2/1977	1.05E-10 μCi	Alpha
Sr-90	0.1 μCi	6/2003	0.1 μCi	Beta
Sr-90	0.1 μCi	6/2003	0.1 μCi	Beta