Radiation
History of the radiation warning symbol
Recently, I was asked the intriguing question: “where did the black and yellow symbol for radioactivity come from?” What surprised me was that, despite using it almost every day in the lab, I hadn’t even considered its origin before now. So I did some digging. The life of the radioactive ‘trefoil’ began in 1946 at […]
The Nuclear Paradox
There’s a paradox when it comes to radioactive material and its portrayal to non-specialists; the fact that radiation is easily detected. The quantification of how radioactive a material is, at first glance, appears quite scary, particularly because it’s so unfamiliar to us. What the heck is a Bequerel or a Sievert after all? After Fukushima, […]
The two faces of radiation
As the deadline for this blog post approached, my anxiety about it ratcheted. The reason being, that the issue of radiation, its perceived safety for living organisms, and whether or not there can ever be a safe dose threshold is at the very core of the fears, concerns, and controversies that have dogged civil nuclear […]
How much is too much radiation?
Ionising radiation can be unnerving. I hate the idea that something I can’t see could do me harm, even do enough harm to kill me! But there are plenty of other things in life that can be bad for me if I get too much of them. We’re told sitting in the sun for too long, or […]
We are woefully under informed
By Annie Dickinson Writing as somebody from outside the world of nuclear research, I (and I’m sure that many others would agree) feel woefully under informed, not only about the risks associated with ionising radiation, but about ionising radiation itself. My knowledge of the subject comes partly from a barely remembered GCSE in physics, but […]
It is time to abandon the concept of ‘acceptable dose’
By Adam Fuller During the height of the Fukushima crisis back in 2011 there was a lot of discussion and fear over the effects of radiation on humans and wildlife. In an attempt to reassure the general public the Japanese and international media focused a lot on dose limits. Dose limits are the levels of […]