Recent PIXE analysis applied to bio-medical and environmental fields in Japan

The distribution of minor and trace elements in biological samples is very informative for bio-medical and environmental research. Particle induced X-ray emission (PIXE) analysis is a powerful tool for this subject since it can analyze many elements in samples non-destructively at high sensitivity and, with an advantage of micro-beam scanning capability. Recent studies in Japan on the application of PIXE analysis to these fields are introduced in this paper. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.