Part 5

The medical profession is dedicated to repairing and healing the human body. Although many mysteries still surround medicine, doctors are trying to solve these mysteries of the body through research.

A medical scientist may decide to specialize exclusively in the use of radioactive materials. If so, he is called a radiologist and is an expert in the use of radiation beams, injection of radioisotopes, and implantation of radioactivity into the body, as well as in the use of the more familiar radium and X-ray devices.

The practicing physician also, after receiving special training and licensing, may use radiation and radioisotopes as another tool in his little black bag. For instance, a suspected thyroid disorder can be diagnosed by following the behavior of a small, harmless dose of radioactive iodine in the patient. A tumor may be brought under control with the use of a strong beam of radiation directed at the diseased tissue.

Behind the physician stand teams of medical research scientists testing the effects of radiation on tissues and cultures and serums in the laboratory. They strive to increase knowledge of the medical benefits of atomic energy.

Nurses in nuclear medicine understand how to handle radioactivity. Pharmacists who enter the field prepare radioactive pharmaceuticals for clinical uses.

Related Fields

It is convenient to discuss scientific activity in the general categories of physics, chemistry, biology, geology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine, but strict lines are not actually drawn around these areas.

There are in the United States today about 2000 individuals who are engaged in a profession that did not even exist twenty years ago: these are the health physicists, who are neither medical men nor physicists. They have backgrounds in physics, true, and they combine this training with training in physiology, botany, chemistry, mathematics, and instrumentation.

It is the duty of the health physicist to evaluate and control any potential hazard in the use of nuclear energy. The health physicist understands the effects of radiation on human tissues and plants. He keeps a constant check on radiation levels in installations where radioactivity is used; he foresees emergencies that might arise; he eliminates unsafe practices; and he assures that personnel working in nuclear energy fields are free from related hazards. The health physicist is a key figure in making the nuclear energy industry one of the safest in the world.

Another profession that spans the sciences is that of the technical writer or editor. In a laboratory he translates the notebooks of the scientist into reports. In an editorial office he edits manuscripts for publication. On a newspaper staff he translates scientific findings into articles for the public.

It is difficult, undesirable, and usually impossible, for a scientist to confine himself to his own field because all sciences affect one another. A chemist may use the tools of the physicist and become a physical chemist; a physicist may go in the other direction and become a chemical physicist. It is not uncommon for a chemical engineer to find himself doing the work of an instrument engineer, or the mechanical engineer to find himself doing the work of an electrical engineer, or both of them doing the work of a nuclear engineer.

The physicist, the chemist, the physician, and the engineer who once thought that outer space was the exclusive domain of the astronomer now find themselves solving reentry problems for missiles, stirring up rocket fuels, testing the effect of weightlessness on the body, and examining diagrams for space craft. Perhaps the botanist who today is totally concerned with the flora of earth will tomorrow find himself fingering a bit of fungus from Mars.

Location of the Atomic Scientist

In the rapidly changing world, each year finds the scientist increasingly important. He is needed to maintain and improve fast-changing technology, to combat disease, to develop natural and man-made resources, to improve food sources and production, and, in general, to work for the betterment of mankind.

The graduate scientist and the engineer will find jobs waiting and will be able to choose, to some extent, the sort of work they wish to do and where they wish to do it.

It is impossible to list all types of organizations open to science graduates, but it is relatively simple to divide them into general groups.

The United States Government

Scientists are needed in federal agencies such as the National Science Foundation, the National Bureau of Standards, the Atomic Energy Commission, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the Public Health Service, the National Institutes of Health, and the Departments of the Army, the Navy, and the Air Force. Positions in these and other federal organizations are open in program administration, basic research, development, and applied research. Numerous positions exist at AEC laboratories that operate under contract--Ames, Argonne, Berkeley, Bettis, Brookhaven, Hanford, Knolls, Livermore, Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, Sandia, and Savannah River, as well as at the Health and Safety Laboratory in New York City.

Private Industry

Unlimited opportunities are found in private industry. Most industries have extensive research and development programs, as well as production activities. In addition to the industries that are engaged primarily in the design and fabrication of nuclear and electronic equipment, hundreds of industries use radioisotopes and radiation in tracing, testing, development, inspection, and quality control.

Opportunities are open to the scientist who wishes to work for himself. He may organize his own company to provide self-employment or he may serve as a private consultant.

Educational Organizations

With the growing demand for scientists comes an increasing need for science teachers--good science teachers--from the elementary through the university graduate-school level. The scientist who enters the teaching profession need not feel that he turns his back on a research career. Thousands of significant investigations and discoveries are made at colleges and universities where science faculty members combine teaching with research.

Although the basic salary scale for the science teacher is not normally as high as that of the industrial scientist, this situation is improving. Moreover, many college faculty members augment their salaries and keep in touch with new developments by acting as part-time consultants to industry and government. A scientific teaching career offers certain advantages: frequently the professor enjoys greater freedom than the industrial scientist in budgeting time and channeling interests, and teachers also experience the satisfaction of developing human minds.

Hospitals

Hospitals and medical research institutions must have highly competent scientific staffs. Besides physicians they need chemists, biochemists, biologists, bacteriologists, and often physicists and veterinarians.

State and Local Governments

Scientists hold important posts in state and local government ranging from the director of a state health department to the chemist in a police laboratory to the radiation safety advisor on a civil-defense commission. As the states assume more and more responsibility for licensing and regulating nuclear and other scientific development, the need for state-employed scientific staff members will grow.