Radiation

Analysis and Comment (8)

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The Hadron Collider was built to find the Higgs Boson but it might also help us discover better ways to treat cancer. PA/CERN

Cutting-edge particle physics could bring cancer therapy home

By Bleddyn Jones, University of Oxford

The recent case of Neon Roberts and the legal dispute over his treatment for a brain tumour threw the spotlight on the potential risks of using radiotherapy to treat complex cancers in children. Radiotherapy…
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Observations from NASA’s Van Allen Probes have revealed that a third radiation belt can sometimes appear above Earth. NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center

NASA discovers a new radiation belt around Earth

By Kevin Orrman-Rossiter, University of Melbourne

NASA revealed this morning (AEST) that its Van Allen Probes have discovered a third, previously unknown, radiation belt around Earth. The belt appears to be transient, depending strongly on solar activity…
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This is bad, but it would be a lot worse without the ozone layer. garth.kennedy/Flickr

How does the ozone layer protect Earth from radiation?

By Peter Gies, James Cook University

SAVING THE OZONE: Part three in our series exploring on the Montreal Protocol on Substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer – dubbed “the world’s most successful environmental agreement” – explains why we…
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Smart meters worldwide use conventional cell phone networks to transmit their data. portland general

Smart meters are about as dangerous as …

By Jonathan Borwein (Jon), University of Newcastle and David H. Bailey, The Conversation

Most fairly well educated people recognise pseudoscience as bunkum when they see it — astrology, young-earth creationism, alien abduction, pyramid power … Yet some of these same people are now being sucked…
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The true health costs of Fukushima’s radiation leaks won’t be known for decades. AAP

Don’t hold your breath for Fukushima’s radiation toll

By Tilman Ruff, University of Melbourne

A year can be a long time in politics. But for the radioactive particles released from Fukushima’s damaged nuclear reactor, a year is just a moment in their life of hundreds or thousands of years. So…
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Iran is constructing nuclear power stations; that much is clear. AAP

Could Iran be building nuclear weapons? A scientific perspective

By Martin Sevior, University of Melbourne

There is much concern that Iran is in the process of developing nuclear weapons. Such a development, we’re told, could induce Israel to launch a unilateral military strike with all types of unpredictable…

Research and News (1)

Research Briefs (4)

Radioactive material threatens farms in Japan

Proceedings of the National Academy of Science

Soil from eastern Fukushima and some neighboring areas has levels of Cesium-137 above safe levels for human consumption…

Where is the earth’s heat coming from?

Kansas State University

A study on the Earth’s radioactivity has found that uranium, thorium and potassium produce almost half of the Earth’s heat…

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