Radioactivity in biological research

Radioactivity can be used in life sciences as a radiolabel to easily visualise components or target molecules in a biological system. Radionuclei are synthesised in particle accelerators and have short half-lives, giving them high maximum theoretical specific activities. This lowers the detection time compared to radionuclei with longer half-lives, such as carbon-14. In some applications they have been substituted by fluorescent dyes.