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Measuring the Invisible

February 6, 2012

Research Associate Crystal Breier inserts a prepared sample into a lead-lined gamma well detector. The specialized instrument amplifies and measures energy released by the decay of radioactive isotopes, in this case isotopes of cesium-137 released from the Fukushima nuclear power plant and collected in seawater samples by WHOI chemist Ken Buesseler off the coast of Japan in June 2011. (Photo by Tom Kleindinst, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)