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Summary
It is suggested that primary radiation damage to a macromolecule in a cell which may lead to observable biological effect is normally the direct effect of a single energy-loss event in the macromolecule. This concept is applied to the production of chromosome aberrations, regarding a local region of a chromosome as a molecule of DNA, and assuming that an aberration results from an exchange between two damaged regions. The model is consistent with the observed dependence of aberration yield on dose, LET and modifying agents. Over a considerable range of LET, effectiveness per unit dose is proportional to dose-average LET. Similar basic concepts appear to be applicable to cell killing.