Does anyone know how does extreme radiation exposure directly affect a human's biological functions? I know that in games the visual fuck-ups are meant to emphasize the fact that you're suffering from radiation poisoning, but are there any accounts of/from REAL people? I was thinking about the containment crews after the explosion at the Chernobyl NPP and the immediate effects the radiation had on them when they went in, barely wearing any protection. For example, there's one account of a Mi-24 (Hind for NATO) crashing when it got tangled in crane cables while dumping sand on the exposed reactor. Supposedly the pilot lost consciousness/sight/got extremely dizzy and control slipped, causing him to veer into the cables.
Thoughts?
Edit:
[IMG]http://i.imgur.com/NStH9.png[/IMG]
It damages the DNA in cells, so when they replicate, you get malformed cells. Cancerous.
That, and it damages the existing ones outright. Some parts of the body are more sensitive to radiation exposure. Hence, the scenario you described. If the person's head was affected by the radiation, causing vision blurring and migraine-like symptoms, it could easily screw over something as delicate as flying a Cold War era helicopter.
Wait, so if hypothetically a human was immune to radiation in such a way that it didn't kill the person, they would actually "mutate"? In a very long time, ofcourse...?
Edit: Not turn into the Hulk or some ridiculous pseudo-hero. Just have cancerous growths and abnormalities everywhere? Doubly so for potential offspring?
[QUOTE=just-a-boy;33981983]Wait, so if hypothetically a human was immune to radiation in such a way that it didn't kill the person, they would actually "mutate"? In a very long time, ofcourse...?
Edit: Not turn into the Hulk or some ridiculous pseudo-hero. Just have cancerous growths and abnormalities everywhere? doubly so for potential offspring?[/QUOTE]
Well, theoretically, yes. They would just become a malformed blob of cancerous tissue. Giant walking tumor, so to speak.
Children would likely not be born, and die during gestation.
[QUOTE=just-a-boy;33981983]Wait, so if hypothetically a human was immune to radiation in such a way that it didn't kill the person, they would actually "mutate"? In a very long time, ofcourse...?
Edit: Not turn into the Hulk or some ridiculous pseudo-hero. Just have cancerous growths and abnormalities everywhere? Doubly so for potential offspring?[/QUOTE]
They would grow large tumors, but their cells would die long before anything gets too big
Can't really be immune if your cells are affected
I believe the symptons go from nausea, sickness, diarrhea to fever then depending on the dosage you can suffer seizures, visual/cognitive impairment, hemorrhaging and other symptons I can't remember. Not obviously including blistering, necrosis and cancer.
So really it is entirely possible, especially with the fever and visual impairment in bad cases of radiation sickness to hallucinate. I have also heard of cases of people hallucinating after cancer treatment too. But can't really confirm anything.
[editline]31st December 2011[/editline]
Also, what Arachnidus said in the first post.
[QUOTE=just-a-boy;33981983]Wait, so if hypothetically a human was immune to radiation in such a way that it didn't kill the person, they would actually "mutate"? In a very long time, ofcourse...?
Edit: Not turn into the Hulk or some ridiculous pseudo-hero. Just have cancerous growths and abnormalities everywhere? Doubly so for potential offspring?[/QUOTE]
If we were immune to radiation nothing would happen, because we'd be immune.
[QUOTE=carcarcargo;33982072]If we were immune to radiation nothing would happen, because we'd be immune.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE][I]hypothetically[/I] a human was immune to radiation [I]in such a way[/I] that it didn't kill the person[/QUOTE]
If you're interested in the effects of radiation exposure on the Chernobyl liquidators, this is an interesting watch.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv3a4LXi_qc[/media]
[QUOTE=just-a-boy;33982462][/QUOTE]
You cannot be immune to radiation and have it have an effect.
I worked for a while in a radiotherapy department in essence killing cancer with radiation, which of course gives lots of rather unpleasant side effects after even a relatively small dose, because it's killing off your cells. It's messy and everything mentioned so far is entirely plausible from a high enough dose.
An interesting observation of chernobyl survivors: more of the people receiving the larger doses of radiation survived than those that got smallish doses. Upto a point the body doesnt actually realise cells are being damaged and doesn't seem to react properly. On a larger scale the body reacts to kill off the damaged cells and replace them with healthy ones.
[QUOTE=just-a-boy;33982462][/QUOTE]
So essentially it does nothing. If we're immune to it in a way that it does not harm us, then it's doing nothing to us,
I read somewhere that while in contact with the radiation, the sensation is a lot like pins and needles.
[quote]Supposedly the pilot lost consciousness/sight/got extremely dizzy and control slipped, causing him to veer into the cables.[/quote]
Interesting thought there. For a while the U.S. Military did tests on chimps to determine how far a bomber pilot could fly, and if he could manage to complete the mission objective when operating in a contaminated area.
Amusingly enough though, they managed to forget one important thing: humans are not chimps (well most aren't). I can imagine any pilot recognizing acute radiation syndrome will flip the fuck out and fuck up regardless of how well the chimps preformed.
Long term exposure to low energy radiation causes DNA damage, and as such can cause mutations (usually cancer).
Short term high energy exposure (what the liquidators dealt with) is a very different beast. It causes radiation poisoning, and outright kills cells. You can recover from radiation poisoning, your tissue will heal. Body functions may be impaired, and that impairment depends on the damage to organs.
As far as I know critical radiation dosed are felt very strong instantly, don't know about low doses.
My granddad on my mother's side was bus driver back then and on the next day after explosion on CNPP he volunteered to evacuate people from Pripyat. After that he was driving same radiated bus for more than 5 years. Mom says he began aging very fast after exposure there. So this is one of long-term effects of radiation.
My granddad on dad's side was working as municipal watering/cleaning truck driver (as seen at 9:44 in the video above). He looks ok after washing off radioactive dust in Kyiv.
[t]http://d37nnnqwv9amwr.cloudfront.net/photos/images/original/000/128/418/sm%20wtf%20is%20this%20nerd%20shit.jpg[/t]
No but seriously, high amounts of radiation e.g. sun beds, x-rays etc.
also with a lot of high doses, can obviously get cancer. great gran died of cancer. Grandad had it too but fought it off.
Whenever I think of radiation though, I always think of Fallout, is that bad?
[highlight](User was banned for this post ("Image macro" - Craptasket))[/highlight]
[QUOTE=TtIiVv;33982480]If you're interested in the effects of radiation exposure on the Chernobyl liquidators, this is an interesting watch.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wv3a4LXi_qc[/media][/QUOTE]
This documentary gets better and better as it goes on, I thought that it was one I saw ages ago, but it's a different one. It's absolutely fascinating, and really sad when you watch the thing, considering the way that it was hid from some of the workers (like the miners) and absolutely amazing when you consider the heroism of the liquidators who knew the risks.
Here's the other one, this one's more of an acting out, but it still has a lot of interesting information.
[media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqDYC681I-M[/media]
[QUOTE=Terminutter;33984989]heroism of the liquidators who knew the risks.[/QUOTE]
Unfortunately they didn't know the risks, only scientists knew what radiation really is. :(
PS BBC's video has plenty of mismatches, the first one is better
You can drink a Cossacks Vodka and about a 1/4 of the radiation goes away.
This alcoholic beverage specifically:
[IMG]http://images2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100927115937/stalker/images/thumb/3/38/SHOC_Vodka_World_Model.png/250px-SHOC_Vodka_World_Model.png[/IMG]
[QUOTE=GVG-Vit;33985139]Unfortunately they didn't know the risks, only scientists knew what radiation really is. :(
PS BBC's video has plenty of mismatches, the first one is better[/QUOTE]
True, the BBC one's inaccurate, but still interesting enough to put up. You're right about most (probably over 90%) not knowing, but there were still a few who knew.
(for example, I don't remember the BBC one mentioning the miners and several other things)
I'd love to go to the Exclusion Zone for a few hours, just to have a look at the whole place. Issue is, the sheer amount of paperwork, cost and the language barriers.
Actually, wasn't there a FPer who did it and recorded it?
[QUOTE=Terminutter;33985216]True, the BBC one's inaccurate, but still interesting enough to put up. You're right about most (probably over 90%) not knowing, but there were still a few who knew.
(for example, I don't remember the BBC one mentioning the miners and several other things)
I'd love to go to the Exclusion Zone for a few hours, just to have a look at the whole place. Issue is, the sheer amount of paperwork, cost and the language barriers.
Actually, wasn't there a FPer who did it and recorded it?[/QUOTE]
You can go even for a day and have a tour. I want too. AFAK our government has adopted new law recently, so Exclusion Zone is open for tourists now(it was closed for everyone a month ago or so). The question of price? Not expensive. Should be around 100$ I think.
We can meet together someday and make Facepunch Exclusion Zone Tour :v:
[QUOTE=Awesomecaek;33985095]*fancy-ass graph*[/QUOTE]
Thanks a ton, that's interesting stuff.
a
[QUOTE=GVG-Vit;33985405]You can go even for a day and have a tour. I want too. AFAK our government has adopted new law recently, so Exclusion Zone is open for tourists now(it was closed for everyone a month ago or so). The question of price? Not expensive. Should be around 100$ I think.
We can meet together someday and make Facepunch Exclusion Zone Tour :v:[/QUOTE]
Damn, we gotta make this happen. I wonder how much it costs to fly to Ukraine from New Jersey, along with all of the paperwork etc..
[QUOTE=Doneeh;33986035]Damn, we gotta make this happen. I wonder how much it costs to fly to Ukraine from New Jersey, along with all of the paperwork etc..[/QUOTE]
No paperwork for you, only just you have to buy gold priced tickets. :v:
I know flight NYC-Borispyl(Kyiv) can cost somewhere from 250$(if you are extremely lucky) to 600$, the most common price is around 500$. And if you want to return home(you'll definitely want to) you have to spend twice more. :suicide:
[QUOTE=LordCrypto;33983317]I read somewhere that while in contact with the radiation, the sensation is a lot like pins and needles.[/QUOTE]
It's because radiation directly stimulates nerves due to (correct me if I'm wrong) the photoelectric effect radiation has when colliding with matter.
Potassium iodide can help protect one against radiation poisoning by protecting the thyroid from radioactive iodine, but this is from indirect exposure such as from fallout and such.
Getting hit by a beam of gamma radiation will pretty much kill you instantly as it will pretty much obliterate all genetic and biological material instantly on an atomic level. It's pretty interesting.
Death by SCIENCE!
[QUOTE=LordCrypto;33983317]I read somewhere that while in contact with the radiation, the sensation is a lot like pins and needles.[/QUOTE]
I've been exposed to radiation, and it kinda felt like that, albeit mine was a relatively small dose so it might vary at larger exposure levels. Best way to describe it is that kinda tingling/stinging you get when you've been out in the sun for way too long, but you aren't quite burnt yet.
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