This collection of twenty articles reviews the interaction between matter and high energy radiation (from electrons, other charged particles, xrays, and gammarays). It also provides a detailed, scholarly account of the status of current research. The first section of the book covers the principles and concepts that lie behind radiant energy deposition in chemical systems, considers the physics and physico-chemical consequences of radiation-matter interaction, and describes the instrumentation employed for quantitative studies. Subsequent sections discuss areas that are of fundamental importance such as theoretical approaches to energy deposition, track structure, and electron solvation. The final chapters recount aspects of radiation interaction with synthetic macromolecules, biopolymers, microorganisms and mammalian cells, concluding with a contribution on radiation processing and sterilization of biological materials.