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	Podcast:		4. Chemistry and Physics
	Episode:		Radioactivity
	Category:		Science & Medicine
	Duration:		00:01:06
	Publish Date:		2011-07-13 19:35:35
	Description:		Transcript: A radioactive element or atom is something that spontaneously decays, often into a more stable form, by the emission of one or more particles. There are three forms of emission from radioactivity. One corresponds to the emission of an alpha particle, or a helium nucleus, two protons and two neutrons bound together. The second is called beta decay, the process by which a neutron decays into a proton with the emission of an electron and a small invisible particle. The third is gamma radiation which corresponds to the release of a high energy photon. In all of these processes it is an utterly random event where the probability of a particular atom decaying cannot be specified, but the probability that a particular fraction of atoms will decay in a particular time can be specified. The time taken for half of a collection of radioactive atoms to decay is called the half life.
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