FOREWORD 



Alvin M. Weinberg 



Director, Oak Ridge National Laboratory 



The reader of this book may wonder why it is that an institution such as the 

 Oak Ridge National Laboratory, which is primarily interested in the control 

 and release of nuclear energy, should also be interested in sponsoring a meeting 

 on Information Theory in Health Physics and Radiobiology. 



The answer rests in the fact that among the activities that are pursued at 

 this Laboratory there are two which bear very directly on general problems 

 of growth and of the impairment of growth by radiation and allied agents. 

 Broad programs in fundamental research in the basic physical mechanisms 

 and in the basic biological manifestations of radiation damage have been 

 established in the Health Physics Division and in the Biology Division. In 

 the Biology Division there is a great deal of experimental work being done on 

 protein synthesis, on the mechanism of action of the nucleic acids, and on 

 problems of the characterization of the nucleic acids. In the Health Physics 

 Division there is a lively interest in the problems of dosimetry and the basic 

 mechanisms of the interaction of radiation and matter. It is in establishing 

 a tie-up between the physical and biological aspects of radiation damage that 

 information theory may play an important role. We hope that this conference 

 will help to assess the value of information theory to phenomena involved 

 in the interaction of radiation and living matter. 



<r? 



IX 



