Posted on Jun 7, 2002

Robert Fleischer, research professor of geology, is
the author of a chapter on the subject of applications of track
detectors in the Encyclopedia of Materials (Elsevier Science, 2001).
Fleischer describes how tracks – needle shaped collections of
atomic fissions that can be caused by nuclear particles in many solids
– are useful in fields ranging from radiobiology, to aerosol
collection and identification, to dating temperature rises in the past
in geological materials.