Specific activity several other biomedical applications. Specific activity Specific activity is the activity per quantity of a radionuclide and is a physical property of that radionuclide. Activity is a quantity related to radioactivity. The SI unit of activity is the becquerel (Bq), equal to one reciprocal second. The becquerel is defined as the number of radioactive transformations per second that occur in a particular radioactive isotope. Its related non-SI unit equivalent is the Curie (Ci) which is transformations per second. Since the probability of radioactive decay for a given radionuclide is a fixed physical quantity (with some slight exceptions, see changing decay
Radioactivity in the life sciences ). Radioactivity in the life sciences Radioactivity is generally used in life sciences for highly sensitive and direct measurements of biological phenomena, and for visualizing the location of biomolecules radiolabelled with a radioisotope. All atoms exist as stable or unstable isotopes and the latter decay at a given half-life ranging from attoseconds to billions of years; radioisotopes useful to biological and experimental systems have half-lives ranging from minutes to months. In the case of the hydrogen isotope tritium (half-life = 12.3 years) and carbon-14 (half-life = 5,730 years), these isotopes derive their importance from all organic life containing hydrogen and