Isotopes are varieties of atoms that have the same atomic number.
Isotope is known as the varieties of atoms that have the same atomic number and, therefore, constitute the same element even if they have a different mass number. Atoms that are isotopes of each other have the same number of protons in the nucleus and are found in the same place on the periodic table .
The term isotope has its etymological origin in Greek and is made up of two parts of that language: isos , which can be translated as "equal" and topos , which means "place."
Soddy's contribution
In addition to this, we must highlight the fact that it was at the beginning of the 20th century when the concept was used for the first time. Specifically, its creator was the English scientist Frederick Soddy, who has gone down in the history of chemistry for having invented it and also for having carried out important research on radioactive elements and the nature of the aforementioned element.
So much so that he achieved important recognitions and awards throughout his entire professional career. Among those are the Nobel Prize in Chemistry that he obtained in 1921, the Albert Medal in 1951 or the appointment as Honorary Doctor of the University of Oxford in 1910.
It should be noted that many chemical elements have more than one isotope. Only twenty-one elements, such as sodium , have a single natural isotope. It is possible to divide isotopes into stable isotopes and non-stable or radioactive isotopes .
Isotopes are used in medicine for the development of different studies.
Radioactive isotopes
For an isotope to be radioactive , it must exhibit a ratio between its number of neutrons and protons that is not conducive to maintaining the stability of the nucleus. The notion of stability, however, is not very precise since there are isotopes that are considered almost stable thanks to an extremely long neutralization time.
The radioactive isotope has an atomic nucleus that is unstable due to the balance between protons and neutrons. This same characteristic causes it to emit energy when it changes shape towards more stable conditions. Non-stable isotopes undergo a decay period where energy is emitted as beta, alpha or gamma rays .
Artificial radioactive isotopes are used in medicine for various functions, such as detecting blockages in blood vessels. Natural radioactive isotopes , for their part, are used to establish chronologies.
Other uses of the term
The Springfield Isotopes , finally, are a baseball team from the animated series The Simpsons .
The Duff Stadium is the field where this team plays at home and has starred in an important series of episodes during the various seasons of this North American television production. Specifically, among the most relevant events stands out the moment in which Homer Simpson goes on hunger strike because he wanted to prevent the Isotopes from moving out of Springfield at all costs.
Likewise, under the term isotope we also find an online advertising agency.