Answer
Malvin Calvin used radioactive carbon to discover a series of molecules that form during photosynthesis.
Similarly, we can explain why carbon behaves chemically the same even when radioactive by taking following example.
Work Step by Step
As we know the Carbon isotopes act as a chemical element even in its radioactive state, Isotopes are the variant forms of the same element that occur as radioactive isotopes.
The isotopic form of an element differ from its non-radioactive counterpart in its number of neutrons they have a different atomic mass, but the same number of protons.
Radioactive isotopes are used in several applications like research and therapy.
So one of the examples of a radioactive element is carbon:
The three forms of common carbon Isotopes are Carbon 12,13 1, and 14.
The carbon isotope was useful to trace the events occurring during the important biochemical pathway the Calvin pathway.
The pathway was named after Melvin Calvin the discoverer of the pathway Calvin used the carbon isotope to trace the events happening during photosynthesis where the carbon is fixed and converted into an organic form.
Being a radioactive isotope, it is easy to track its movement through the biochemical pathway When the raw material sent into the pathway contains the isotope, the incorporation of the carbon in the final products will give an indication of the pathway process and direction
In this example, the radioactive carbon behaves similarly to the non-isotopic form biochemically.
This is because for the photosynthetic pathways the contribution of carbon is its protons and not its atomic mass or the number of neutrons.
The protons of carbon play an important role in the Calvin cycle and thus biochemically the radioactive isotope behaves similar to its non-isotopic form This is the reason for the carbon isotope being useful as a trace element Thus the carbon behaves chemically the same even when radioactive
