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Abstract

The fact that about three-quarters of all chemical elements are mixtures of two or more stable isotopes is commonly known. However, despite a wide use of this fact in many seemingly disjointed areas of science and technology, for example the nuclear industry, isotope labelling in biology and medicine and isotope geology, there have been no attempts to look at the isotopic diversity in nature as a single phenomenon which we provisionally call isotopicity. This review presents the entire notion of isotopicity in a unifying, holistic manner as a concept with a broad spectrum of manifestations and a diversified range of practical applications rather than as an accidental chemical curiosity with a separate isotopic story for each chemical element. Various ramifications of isotopicity are discussed, ranging from classical solid state physics effects to possible applications of isotopic permutations for information storage.

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Isotopicity: Implications and Applications

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