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A nanodosimeter device (15) for detecting positive ions induced in a sensitive gas volume by a radiation field of primary particle, comprising an ionization chamber (10) for holding the sensitive gas volume to be irradiated by the radiation field of primary particles; an ion counter system connected

A nanodosimeter device (15) for detecting positive ions induced in a sensitive gas volume by a radiation field of primary particle, comprising an ionization chamber (10) for holding the sensitive gas volume to be irradiated by the radiation field of primary particles; an ion counter system connected to the ionization chamber ( 10) for detecting the positive ions which pass through the aperture opening and arrive at the ion counter (12) at an arrival time; a particle tracking system for position-sensitive detection of the primary particles passing through the sensitive gas volume; and a data acquisition system capable of coordinating the readout of all data signals and of performing data analysis correlating the arrival time of the positive ions detected by the ion counter system relative to the position sensitive data of primary particles detected by the particle tracking system. The invention further includes the use of the nanodosimeter for method of calibrating radiation exposure with damage to a nucleic acid within a sample. A volume of tissue-equivalent gas is radiated with a radiation field to induce positive ions. The resulting positive ions are measured and compared with a determination of presence or extent of damage resulting from irradiating a nucleic acid sample with an equivalent dose of radiation.

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What is claimed is: 1. A nanodosimeter device for detecting positive ions induced in a sensitive gas volume by a radiation field of primary particles, comprising: an ionization chamber filled with a low-pressure density gas including the sensitive gas volume to be irradiated by the radiation field

What is claimed is: 1. A nanodosimeter device for detecting positive ions induced in a sensitive gas volume by a radiation field of primary particles, comprising: an ionization chamber filled with a low-pressure density gas including the sensitive gas volume to be irradiated by the radiation field of primary particles, the ionization chamber having an aperture opening; an ion counter system connected to the ionization chamber for detecting the positive ions, the ion counter system having an ion counter in communication with the aperture opening; a particle tracking system having a position-sensitive detector for detecting the primary particles passing through the sensitive gas volume; and a data acquisition system that receives and correlates data from the ion counter system and the particle tracking system. 2. The nanodosimeter of claim 1, wherein the particle tracking system is capable of multi-axis position-sensitive detection of the primary particles passing through the sensitive gas volume. 3. The nanodosimeter of claim 1, wherein the particle tracking system further comprises an energy measurement system for measuring the energy of the primary particles passing through the sensitive gas volume. 4. The nanodosimeter of claim 1, further comprising a radiation source in communication with the ionization cell chamber, for injection of the radiation field of primary particles into the ionization cell chamber. 5. The nanodosimeter of claim 4, wherein the radiation source is a source of a particles. 6. The nanodosimeter of claim 4, wherein the radiation source is a source of ionizing particles. 7. The nanodosimeter of claim 4 wherein the radiation source is an accelerator. 8. The nanodosimeter of claim 7, wherein the accelerator comprises a synchrotron. 9. The nanodosimeter of claim 1, wherein the position-sensitive detector comprises a plurality of scintillators and photomultiplier tubes. 10. The nanodosimeter of claim 1, wherein the position-sensitive detector comprises a silicon microstrip and a multiwire proportional chamber. 11. The nanodosimeter of claim 1, wherein the position-sensitive detector comprises a plurality of silicon microstrips. 12. The nanodosimeter of claim 1, wherein the sensitive gas volume comprises propane. 13. A method for measuring positive ions induced by a radiation field of primary particles, comprising the steps of: providing a tissue-equivalent gas; determining a tissue-equivalent sensitive gas volume of the tissue-equivalent gas; irradiating the sensitive gas volume with the radiation field; detecting the positive ions induced by the radiation field; tracking the primary particles that pass through the sensitive gas volume; and correlating data regarding the positive ions and primary particles. 14. The method of claim 13, further comprising the step of scaling the data from the nanodosimeter for the sensitive gas volume to a DNA-size volume. 15. The method of claim 13, further comprising the steps of: selecting primary particles using the particle tracking system with a reference energy Eref and a given energy E that pass the sensitive gas volume; calculating a ratio of N1(Eref) and N 1(E), which are the average number of nanodosimeter ion counts for primary particle energies Eref and E, respectively; using the ratio of N1(Eref) and N1 (E) as an approximation for the ratio of dN(Eref) and dN(E); and computing the differential value w(E) according to the formula w( E)/w(Eref)=S(E)/S(E ref)Nl(Eref)/Nl (E). 16. A method for calibrating radiation exposure from a first radiation field with the presence or extent of damage to a nucleic acid within a sample, the method comprising the steps of: providing a tissue-equivalent gas; determining a tissue-equivalent sensitive gas volume of the tissue-equivalent gas; irradiating the tissue-equivalent gas and the sample with the first radiation field; calculating the number of positive ions induced within the sensitive gas volume by the first radiation field; detecting the presence or extent of damage to the nucleic acid within the sample following irradiation with a second radiation field; and comparing and correlating the extent of damage to the nucleic acid within the sample with the calculated number of positive ions induced by the first radiation field. 17. The method of claim 16, wherein the second radiation field is equal to the first radiation field.