Radioactive decay is the change of instable atoms to a more stable state. This change to a different nuclide by the spontaneous emission of radiation such as alpha or beta particles, gamma rays, or by electron capture follows an element-specific decay chain. Each step in the decay chain has a definite half-life.
Sometimes also the reduction of excitation energy of the nucleus by e.g. internal conversion is mentioned as radioactive decay.

See also Decay Chain, Radioisotope.

Law which describes the reduction in radioactivity of a material in dependence of time.

See also Decay and Half-Life.

Radionuclides are naturally occurring or artificially produced atoms with unstable nuclei. Therefore radionuclides undergo a radioactive decay, and emit gamma ray(s) and/or subatomic particles.
Radionuclides are used as agents in nuclear medicine and to destroy tumors in cancer therapy.

See Isotope and Radioactive Decay.

Activity is the rate of radioactive decay or the emission rate of a radiation from radioactive material. The cumulated activity is useful for nuclides that emit multiple radiations per disintegration.
The units for activity are the curie (Ci) and the becquerel (Bq).

The biological half-life is the time required for the concentration of a substance in a biological system to be reduced by one half. A biological half-life includes usual processes for eliminating substances without radioactive decay.

See also Biological Radioactive Half-Life.