radiation

There was a time when a farmer simply tasted a clump of dirt to tell the fecundity of the soil. Now, a wide range of chemical analysis help instruct farmers on the optimal mix of fertilizer, pesticide and water. However, tests on soil samples are expensive and time consuming, and few farmers can afford to waste either time or money. And that's where the satellite imaging comes in.

Chemotherapy is notorious for the toll it takes on the entire body. It kills cancer cells, sure, but it kills a lot of healthy cells, too. But soon a new advance in carbon chemistry may replace the shotgun blast of chemo with a radiation sniper shot.

We live in the age of “go-bags”, survival kits kept at the ready to combat just about any worst-case scenario emergencies one might be able to imagine. They’re packed with multi-tools, flashlights, Tamiflu--you name it.

Prepare to make room for a new pill that might be able to directly counteract the effects of (knock on wood) nuclear fallout.

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.

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.

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.

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