Tracks to Innovation: Nuclear Tracks in Science and Technology

A serendipitous discovery in nuclear physics has led to a useful tool in materials science. In the late1950s, scientists at General Electric (among them the author) discovered that when mica is exposed to energ etic charged particles (such as are emitted in radioactive decay or oc cur in cosmic rays), the particles leave latent tracks in the material . When such a material is chemically etched, the tracks are revealed a s narrow, deep pits, whose size and shape is determined both by the pa rt…