More Miracles Ahead 263 



"When the bombardment takes place," wrote Bruce Bliven 

 in the New Republic, June 16, 1941, "almost unbelievable 

 changes are created in the substance exposed to the deuterons. 

 Iron has some of its atoms changed into those of cobalt or 

 manganese. Others remain iron, but with a wonderful new 

 quality of radioactivity. That is, the iron takes on temporarily 

 the qualities of radium itself, giving off radium's powerful 

 and penetrating rays. 



"The cyclotron-made 'synthetic radium' can, moreover, be 

 employed in tremendously important ways not open to 

 natural radium. For the marvelous fact is that, except for giv- 

 ing off rays, a radioactive element acts precisely like the same 

 element found in nature. When radioactive calcium, for ex- 

 ample, is fed to a patient, it accumulates in his system just 

 where normal calcium does. 



"This is of such importance to medicine that informed 

 physicians say the cyclotron is the most wonderful medical 

 tool since the microscope. For some chemicals naturally settle 

 in certain parts of the body. If you were to drink a solution of 

 iodine (don't try it with the highly poisonous variety in your 

 medicine cabinet) the concentration in your thyroid gland 

 would be 5,000 times greater than in your other tissues. In 

 experiments on animals drastic changes in the thyroid gland 

 have been effected with radioactive iodine taken by mouth 

 without harm to the other tissues. 



"This technique has amazing possibilities. There is, for 

 instance, a disease of the blood cells which causes them to 

 reproduce abnormally; its most serious form is usually fatal. 

 Radioactive phosphorus has been found to concentrate in the 

 affected portions of the body, and after receiving treatment, 

 victims have lived for substantial periods." 



Scientists also will be able to create many new metals and 

 other substances for use by industry. Instead of using chemi- 



