Wasn't it Jack Twilley who wrote:
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>I have been wondering how useful POV-Ray would be in tracing gamma
>rays instead of visible light.  This could be useful for modeling
>gamma ray shielding and gamma ray buildup.  Reflection, refraction,
>and dispersion are very similar between the two types of EM radiation,
>as far as I can see.  Obviously, I'd have to create my own material
>definitions and I'd only be able to test one energy level at a time,
>but #ifdef's would help with that.  The biggest obstruction I can see
>is how to associate exposure levels with brightnesses, but I imagine
>that could be done by creating very simple scenes matching calibrated
>environments with accurate tested values.
>
>Any thoughts?

I was under the impression that there were differences in reflection and
refraction. I guess the underlying principles are the same, but there
aren't any available materials that make useful gamma ray lenses or
conventional mirrors. I thought that gamma ray telescopes used a
different reflection principle to produce grazing mirrors, and that
principle is probably not modelled in POV-Ray (unless it works by
fresnel reflection). 

I would have thought that for most gamma ray applications you could
ignore reflection, refraction and dispersion and model all your
materials as partially absorbing media. If you set everything except the
photographic plate to be no_image, then the shadows that POV casts on
that plate should correspond to the photographic image that would be
recorded.

-- 
Mike Williams
Gentleman of Leisure

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