radiation

Say I'm Inside the Large Hadron Collider and It's Revving Up. Should I Be Concerned?

Is that a likely situation? No matter; Popular Science has the answers

Well, it's never a great idea to stand next to a machine that could create black holes, but the magnets that steer the proton beams around the planet's most powerful particle accelerator would probably spare you from excess radiation. Then again, there is the off chance that some 300 trillion protons could erupt from the device and kill you on the spot.

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Still No Link Between Cellphones and Cancer

When will this theory die?

Sure, there have been a few studies backing this idea before, but its one of those conclusions that you can never really hear enough: cell phones do not increase your risk of brain cancer.

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Car Crashes . . . Criminals . . . Cancer . . . Black Swans? AAAAAIIIEEEH!

Sometimes our biggest fear is not knowing what to fear most. Fortunately, the weird science of risk analysis can teach us to judge better and fear smarter

On December 27, 2004, while the world was focused on the Indian Ocean tsunami, a few astronomers were contemplating the possibility of an even deadlier disaster: that of a massive asteroid striking Earth. A fifth of a mile wide—heftier than the space rock that leveled a vast swath of Siberian forest in 1908—Near-Earth Asteroid 2004 MN4 had grabbed the attention of NASA scientists just before Christmas. They put the chance of an April 13, 2029, collision at 1 in 2,700 and two days later upped the odds to 1 in 165.

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Diagnosis: too Much Diagnosis

Body scans are all the rage, but how many do we need?

1,300 Radiation dose, in millirems (mrem), from a single full-body computed tomography (CT) scan


1.5 Miles Distance you’d need to have been from the Hiroshima atomic explosion to receive an equivalent dose


29 Radiation dose, in mrem, from smoking a pack of cigarettes


.08% Increase in risk of death from cancer after a full-body CT scan


3.75% Increase in risk of death from cancer if you receive a full-body CT scan annually starting at age 25







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