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TIL Coal is slightly radioactive. Coal plants are releasing more radiation into the atmosphere on a daily basis than any nuclear plant.

by whatilearned April 18, 2022, 5:01 am

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TIL the sword-billed hummingbird displays extreme coevolution with the passionflower Passiflora mixta. The two species evolved together during the early radiation of the subgenus Tacsonia, because the species exclusively pollinated P. mixta.

by whatilearned April 13, 2022, 11:29 am

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TIL that in Goiânia, Brazil, in 1987 a radiotherapy device was stolen from an abandoned hospital. The people who found it broke it open, exposing the 93 g of radioactive caesium chloride and leading to the contamination of 250 people, 20 of whom experienced radiation sickness and 4 of whom died

by whatilearned March 25, 2022, 2:18 pm

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TIL of the “Gamma Forest” at Brookhaven National Laboratory, New York. A forest that was exposed to intense radiation in order to study the effects of nuclear war on a living ecosystem

by whatilearned March 25, 2022, 12:35 am

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TIL when there’s less solar radiation, temperatures on Earth go up. This is because there’s less solar magnetic shielding against cosmic rays, so radioactive carbon-14 in the atmosphere goes up. Evidence of this is trees contained more carbon-14 during the last Medieval Warm Period.

by whatilearned March 22, 2022, 6:10 pm

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TIL In 1952, during his stint in the Navy, Jimmy Carter was once lowered into a damaged nuclear reactor as part of the clean-up process. This resulted in him having measurable levels of radiation in his urine for about the next six months.

by whatilearned March 8, 2022, 5:45 am

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TIL that bananas can be used as a scale for radiation doses

by whatilearned March 7, 2022, 4:58 am

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TIL the United States government performed many radiation experiments that included feeding radioactive materials to mentally disabled children, exposing impoverished pregnant women to radioactive iron, various experiments involving exposure to prisoners, and on the dead without family’s permission.

by whatilearned February 18, 2022, 5:42 am

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TIL about “Low Background Steel” which was steel produced before the first atomic bomb tests so not contaminated with radionuclides that came from the increased background radiation. This steel was needed to produce Geiger counters and sensitive medical equipment. Shipwrecks were a popular source.

by whatilearned February 7, 2022, 8:26 am

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TIL the Soviet Union captured the first images of the far side of the moon in 1959 using radiation-resistant film recovered from a downed US spy balloon. This technology was essential to protect the film from radiation in space, and the Soviets were unable to produce their own at the time.

by whatilearned February 4, 2022, 1:49 pm

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TIL in the early 1900s, there were special schools for children with ringworm in the UK. After x-rays started to be used as a treatment for ringworm, some of these schools were shut down due to supposed effectiveness of radiation in curing their students.

by whatilearned February 2, 2022, 12:26 pm

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Treatise on radiation poisoning

by CopyPastaArchive February 1, 2022, 12:12 am

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