Radiobiological studies that are environmental in scope became, with the
release of atomic energy, a mandate on the twentieth century.
Environmental studies are not new. They have been implicit in thousands
of biological research efforts, large and small, for generations. Atomic
energy, however, is a new factor. Also new is the intensity of the
approach. Not until the explosion of inquiry of this century has man
brought together the necessary resources—the time, the funds, the
instruments, the ingenious technological devices, the ideas, and the
organizational and management skills—to attack problems that are global
in scale.
The atom as a tool of the environmental radiobiologist has, of itself,
solved few problems. Its significance is that it has speeded up—to a
degree still not fully tested—our ability to study ecosystems and their
relations to each other.