  Since the 1930s, and with very few exceptions, it has been assumed that the
process of radioactive decay is a random process, unaffected by the environment
in which the decaying nucleus resides. There have been instances within the
past few decades, however, where changes in the chemical environment or
physical environment brought about small changes in the decay rates. But even
in light of these instances, decaying nuclei that were undisturbed or
un-"pressured" were thought to behave in the expected random way, subject to
the normal decay probabilities which are specific to each nuclide. Moreover,
any "non-random" behavior was assumed automatically to be the fault of the
detection systems, the environment surrounding the detectors, or changes in the
background radiation to which the detector was exposed. Recently, however,
evidence has emerged from a variety of sources, including measurements taken by
independent groups at Brookhaven National Laboratory, Physikalisch-Technische
Bundesanstalt, and Purdue University, that indicate there may in fact be an
influence that is altering nuclear decay rates, albeit at levels on the order
of $10^{-3}$. In this paper, we will discuss some of these results, and examine
the evidence pointing to the conclusion that the intrinsic decay process is
being affected by a solar influence.
