sto_vo_kor_2000 wrote:And not every type of radioactive material is dangerous.
Care to clarify? I'm not being hostile, please--I'm a lit major and so obviously NOT a science person. I'd be curious to learn, because in my experience, radiation seems to equal bad.
Barium? Radiation therapy for cancer? (If you've seen anyone get that treatment, you know they suffer more acutely from that treatment than the cancer). Even that junk they make you drink for a CT scan makes you sick (and I don't just mean that blurky 'black cherry' flavoring). What about all those poor people who used to paint watch faces with...radium I think? They all got mouth/throat cancers and died.
Every few years you'll hear that it's not such a hot idea to stand in front of your microwave while it's running--I know some of the guys who developed the microwave (at Picattinny Arsenal--w00t!) and they all suffered some pretty awful symptoms in the long term. Cell phones haven't been conclusively linked to increases in brain cancer, but then again, they haven't been long enough for a proper longitudinal study.
If X-ray radiation was harmless, why do they slap that big lead apron on you, even just for dental x-rays?
Spending some years in New Jersey (another w00t, but smaller), I remember everyone freaking out about radon.
And don't get me started on all the scary stuff I learned in NBC (Nuclear Biological Chemical) training.
Now, mind you, I have a granite counter top in my kitchen which set a geiger counter to 'sobbing like a baby' and I'm not freaking out. It's not like I sleep on the thing, for heaven's sake. Just like I imagine (or would like to imagine) Simmons isn't cuddling with Frenzy's head (oh my god brain do NOT go there! AAAAAAAH Too late!) or that Sam is spending ridiculous amounts of time with Bumblebee. Then again, we haven't done a sperm count on either of them. I'm not volunteering.
I mean, in the Bayverse, I'll buy what someone else suggested--that maybe energon is radioactive but is benign. But I'm honestly not seeing any earthbound examples. What am I missing?
HK, I have a PhD in horribleness. Which is not science.