The Early Effects of Radiation on DNA

Interest in the biological effects of ionising radiation closely followed the identification of such radiation. The realisation that DNA is the site of genetic infonnation in cells subsequently focussed attention on DNA as an important target in the lethal and mutagenic effects of ionising radiation. Thus radiation effects upon DNA became an important area for fundamental scientific studies by radiation biologists, chemists and physicists. To a first approximation, the concerns of the three...