As you and a friend are entering a chemistry laboratory at your university, you see a sign that states: danger—radioactive isotopes in use. your friend is an accounting major and has not had any science courses yet. she asks you what a radioactive isotope is and you respond correctly with:

“You know how everything is made of atoms, right? Well, you got different kinds of atoms, Helium, Nitrogen, and so on. This are called elements.  Every atom of the same element has the same numbers of protons. Every Carbon atom in the world has 6 protons. But, sometimes, the elements has different numbers of neutrons.So, you could find Carbon with 5 neutrons, or 6, or 7. We called every “flavor” of Carbon an Isotope. And this is what isotopes are. “Flavors” of the elements, with different numbers of neutrons.

Sometimes a particular isotope goes by a transformation, and gives another isotope, of the same,or another, element. When the isotope does that, radiates energy, that can be harmful for humans. We call this isotopes radioactive, so, we places signs to alert other ones when they are present."

so here is the information for current research:

-nrel's geothermal analysts, scientists, and engineers perform a full range of research from developing advanced methods of locating and accessing geothermal resources to exploring innovative technologies to extract and produce clean energy from the heat of the earth

and here is the information for the technology of geothermal energy:

-it's clean and sustainable

-resources of geothermal energy range from the shallow ground to hot water and hot rock found a few miles beneath the earth's surface, and down even deeper to the extremely high temperatures of molten rock called magma

-almost everywhere, the shallow ground or upper 10 feet of the earth's surface maintains a nearly constant temperature between 50° and 60°f (10° and 16°c)

-geothermal heat pumps can tap into this resource to heat and cool buildings

-a geothermal heat pump system consists of a heat pump, an air delivery system (ductwork), and a heat exchanger-a system of pipes buried in the shallow ground near the building

-in the winter, the heat pump removes heat from the heat exchanger and pumps it into the indoor air delivery system

-in the summer, the process is reversed, and the heat pump moves heat from the indoor air into the heat exchanger

-the heat removed from the indoor air during the summer can also be used to provide a free source of hot water