DISCUSSION 



^Ballantine, D. S., Glines, A., Colombo, P. and Manowitz, B. U.S. Atomic 

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11 (1954) 253 

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 B.A.LLANTINE, D. S. and Manowitz, B. ^.^S'. Atomic Energy Commission Report 

 BNL 317, 1954 



^B.\CH, N. Proceedings of the First Conference on the Peaceful Uses of Atomic Energy 7 

 Geneva, 1955 

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1215 

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 1274 



DISCUSSION 



Dr. Duncan: I remember a report by Sir John Cockcroft in 1954^ that cholesterol 

 splits on X irradiation into two products only, with a 90 per cent yield. Now this, of 

 course was done under different conditions from the work which Dr. Green reports, 

 but could he comment on the differences between the two pieces of work? 



Dr. Green : I cannot say anything as I do not know what happened — whether it was 

 irradiated in a pure form, or what the conditions were. My information came from 

 the review by Collinson and Swallow-. I think there are four pages of reactions which 

 occur with sterols reported there. This example is of some specific interest to my 

 paper. Understanding of radiation-induced reactions is obscured by the fact that 

 one uses any radiation which is handy. One has no idea which component of it — 

 whether it is the ionization effect, or the molecular excitation, or the heat effect — is 

 producing the reaction. 



Professor Ralph : I think one interesting comment one might make on some of the 

 results we have heard this afternoon is that very often the initial products of irradiation 

 of some of these compounds of biological interest seem fairly closely parallel to those 

 which often occur under biological conditions. I think this might be an approach 

 which should perhaps be pushed a little further in the plotting out of biosynthetic and 

 degradative sequences. I think some of Weiss's work, for example, on the irradiation 

 of sterols under different conditions, does in fact support this. 



115 



