Gamma rays are extremely energetic and potentially dangerous. Gamma radiation readily passes through the human body and must be stopped with lead or concrete. The damaged cells may become cancerous. Radiation produces a variety of cancers, including leukemia, which killed Mme. Curie, one of the pioneering researchers on radioisotopes.
Radiation can also cause birth defects and genetic damage.
There are several different ways of measuring radiation and its potential biological effects. Radiation may be measured in terms of the number of disintegrations per unit time or by the amount of ionization damage caused by the exposure of matter to the radiation. The curie was derived from the amount of disintegrations per second released by one gram of the radioactive element radium. Alternatively, a becquerel is one disintegration per second. Roentgens describe the amount of ionization produced from radiation exposure.