Protect Yourself Against Nuclear Weapons

post from Science Ain't So Bad on 16 March 2012 05:16:04 PM. © Science Ain't So Bad

LOOKIN' GOOD!

EASY ON THE RADIATION, OKAY?

EVEN HOPELESS STUFF’S NOT HOPELESS

If you get a big dose of radiation (like some of the workers at Japan?s Fukushima Daiichi power plant) you’re hosed, aren?t you?

Not necessarily.

Here?s the thing. Radioactivity?s scary. If the blast don?t get you, the ?vapours? will.

It?s invisible, insidious, and inevitable.

Until now if you got overexposed to radiation, all anyone could do was to toss you in the shower, give you a pill (which didn?t do much good) and keep you comfortable while your hair fell out.

Seriously.

GOOD NEWS

If ”the bomb” blows you up, no pill is going to put you back together again. But Rebecca Abergel (Berkeley Lab’s Glenn T. Seaborg Center) is doing great work on a decontamination pill. It?ll flush the actinides (the ?nasty stuff?) out into your urine before much damage is done.

Maybe bombs ARE being made under the mountains of your least favorite countries. But you can rest easy now with an antidote by your bedside.

Science. An answer for everything, eh? Snide comments aside, this is a terrific project with the potential to save lives; it deserves a ScienceAintSoBadRating = 10 .

Thank you for the good work, Gleen T. Seaborg Center and Dr. Abergel.

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Image credits to Intergalacticrobotos.blogspot.com
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