The Russian invasion of Ukraine has placed Ukraine’s nuclear sites under considerable threat with a growing risk that further conflict may lead to radioactive contamination.
Richard Branson, next to White Knight Spaceship 2.
Jared Ortega/Shutterstock
Radiotherapy takes many forms: from directing powerful high-energy beams toward specific areas of the body to placing radioactive seeds right next to tumors.
Public health measures such as vaccine and mask mandates, lockdowns and school closures have been widely discussed in scientific and popular media.
THE CANADIAN PRESS/Lars Hagberg
As the COVID-19 pandemic fades, we may debate whether public health responses could have been better. But first we need to understand what public health errors are — and are not.
Huge amounts of contaminated soil have been removed from areas of Fukushima Prefecture.
Franck Robichon/EPA
The science that wins the Nobel Prize in Physics each year can be hard to get your head around – but it often has real everyday implications.
With NASA planning more missions to space in the future, scientists are studying how to mitigate health hazards that come with space flight.
AP Photo/John Raoux
Nuclear weapons production and testing contaminated many sites across the US and exposed people unknowingly to radiation and toxic materials. Some have gone uncompensated for decades.
A 1946 nuclear weapon test by the US military at Bikini Atoll, Micronesia.
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In the 1957 worldwide bestseller, Australia is – briefly – the last habitable place on earth, following a nuclear world war. One character asks, as they wait to die: ‘Why did all this happen to us?’
Depleted uranium shells will equip M1A1 Abrams battle tanks, also from the U.S.
Lance Cpl. Julio McGraw, USMC/Flickr
Depleted uranium munitions are bad news for enemy tanks, but are not nuclear weapons, and studies have shown that they pose low risks of radiation or chemical exposure.
An x-ray of the brightest ever gamma ray burst reflected off dust layers, creating extended ‘light echoes’ of the initial blast.
Nasa
Radiation from the brightest cosmic explosion ever seen may have been mixing with gas and dust around its dying star – making the signal last longer.
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant seen across the Dnieper River, which was receding after a downstream dam was destroyed.
Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images
The International Atomic Energy Agency says the plant has enough water to last for several months. What happens afterward or if the remaining water is lost to the war could lead to a disaster.
Watching a solar eclipse is always fascinating. During the phase when the moon completely obstructs the sun, daylight gives way to a deep twilight sky.
(Shutterstock)
Some parts of North America will witness a total solar eclipse in April 2024. This may seem far away, but you should think about preparing for this rare and fascinating phenomenon.
October is awash in seas of pink T-shirts, balloons and ribbons in honor of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. But this messaging fails to recognize people who are not cured of the disease.
The last operating reactor at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, reactor No. 6, has been safely shut down.
Xinhua News Agency via Getty Images
The power plant’s sixth reactor has been shut down, all but eliminating the risk of a nuclear meltdown. But fighting at the site could still release radioactive material.