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autoradiograph

autoradiograph

9.9
A photo on film that shows where a radioactive substance is in a sample
  • noun
  • /ˌɔːtəˈreɪdiəˌɡræf/
  • Specialized
translation icon : autoradiografía
  • Knorr-Cetina and Amann reproduce several such drawings, done on the spur of the moment to help explain questions raised by the autoradiograph (Fig. 5).
  • other autoradiographs

Examples

  • The object of the image is not to depict bands but to understand the transcription of RNA, and so the scientists are also thinking of molecular models and laboratory apparatus that do not look anything like their autoradiograph.

    Academic text (1995)
  • Fig. 4 is an autoradiograph, recording the seepage of chemicals through a viscous jelly.

    Academic text (1995)
  • Nothing in the drawing resembles the autoradiograph in form or scale.

    Academic text (1995)
  • I want to point out, however, a different characteristic of the autoradiograph, one that sets it apart from the ways in which images are connected to one another either in astronomy or in the history of art.

    Academic text (1995)
  • Autoradiographs are common images on television, since they are used in DNA identification in criminal trials.

    Academic text (1995)
  • The scientists recall other autoradiographs in the way an artist might think of other paintings, but they also think of the very different physical reality they are trying to represent.

    Academic text (1995)
  • PHOTO (BLACK & WHITE): 4 Autoradiograph (from Karin Knorr-Cetina and Klaus Amann, "Image Dissection in Natural Scientific Inquiry," Science, Technology, and Human Values, IV, no. 3, 1990, fig. 1)

    Academic text (1995)
  • The autoradiograph clearly shows the distribution of the radioactive tracer in the tissue sample.

  • Researchers analyzed the autoradiograph to determine how the drug spread throughout the body.

  • An autoradiograph was used in the lab to visualize the uptake of the labeled compound by the cells.

Surface Forms

Morphology

autoradiograph = radiograph (opaque) = auto + radio + graph

The word is built on the technical base 'radiograph', but the specialised scientific meaning is not recoverable for an average B1 learner from the parts alone.

Etymology

The word autoradiograph comes from auto- 'self', radio- 'ray' or 'radiation', and -graph 'record', like in photograph or autograph. So, an autoradiograph is a 'self-record' made when a sample's own radioactive rays make an image on film, which is why it shows where radioactive material is in the sample.