Once upon a time, physicists agreed that radiation is the ability of a material object to emit energy in the form of waves and particles simultaneously. This is, of course, an extremely simplified interpretation, but, as they say, simplicity is key. What they understood themselves, they conveyed to you.
There are plenty of monographs, dissertations, and textbooks written about radiation. However, recent research puzzles not only physicists, poets, and high school teachers: even Einstein’s spirit is bewildered by what is happening in the Large Hadron Collider. What further complicates matters is the fact that we do not see the majority of these waves and particles – in fact, we do not see any waves at all, except for the familiar sunlight.
Particles
Let’s try to understand. Any object can emit something if it is strongly heated or excited (well, almost any object, of course): in an excited state, atomic nuclei, protons, electrons, and the rest of the subatomic clutter inside atoms start moving chaotically, flying off in search of adventures and crashing into other objects, causing their particles to tremble nervously. So, streams of flying particles are called radiation.
Alpha Radiation
In short and clear terms, a stream of alpha particles is heavy and slow-flying nuclei of helium-4. Big, clumsy alphas, resulting from nuclear reactions, have difficulty penetrating anything: into inorganics – up to 3.7 cm, and into living organisms – only up to 0.05 mm. So if you wrap yourself in a roll of toilet paper, you’ll easily protect yourself from the alpha flow, but if you ingest a portion of radionuclides – you’ll ensure yourself a certain death. Long and agonizing.
What’s it good for?
Nothing. Except, perhaps, radon baths. Radon is a radium isotope, the radiation of which helps with depression, gout, and various dermatitis. The main thing is not to overdo it.
What’s the danger?
Alpha rays, especially of high intensity, cause DNA and cell membrane damage, but they can be easily stopped by protective clothing, and they do not penetrate indoors at all.
Beta Radiation
A stream of electrons or positrons, arising from the same nuclear reactions. Beta particles penetrate living tissues only for a few centimeters, and for protection, an aluminum plate several millimeters thick is sufficient.
What’s it good for?
When electrons hit a phosphor (a substance that converts radiation into visible light), luminescence begins – we observe this process every time we turn on a regular fluorescent lamp.
What’s the danger?
If you come into contact with an unauthorized beta particle stream, the first thing to be genuinely concerned about is skin burns. Prolonged exposure to the body causes full-fledged radiation sickness.
Gamma Radiation
Hard radiation consisting of high-speed photons, which are absorbed by lead and other heavy elements.
What’s it good for?
Gamma radiation is useful for the same reasons it’s dangerous: its ability to destroy living cells. Oncologists successfully use this property to treat cancerous tumors by directing a precisely focused stream of hard radiation to the affected tissue.
What’s the danger?
There is a belief that prehistoric mollusks and 90% of other Ordovician period fauna (443 million years ago) perished in agonizing pain due to hard cosmic gamma radiation. Somewhere in the depths of space, a supernova exploded, and the photon stream incinerated all those who didn’t manage to hide.
On Earth, there is also natural gamma background radiation (created by cosmic radiation and nuclear reactions in the planet’s bowels) – in some areas of France, India, Brazil, and other countries, it exceeds average values many times over, but this does not prevent local residents from feeling fine.
RADIO WAVES
Electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength ranging from 3 kilohertz (kHz) to 3000 gigahertz (GHz) is also impossible to see, yet it is present everywhere. The length of these waves ranges from 100,000 kilometers to 0.1 millimeters.
UHF (Ultra High Frequency)
Ultra high frequency radiation is decimeter radio waves with a length ranging from 1 meter to 10 centimeters and a frequency of 300 to 3000 megahertz (MHz).
What’s it good for?
Once upon a time, a UHF device in the school infirmary was a place where every sniffling schoolchild could legitimately skip an unpleasant class. In reality, UHF radiation can cure not only a runny nose but also a host of other ailments by converting radiation into thermal energy.
What’s the danger?
The same as its benefits — deep tissue penetration: in the invisible light of radio waves, cancer cells rapidly proliferate. It’s also said that UHF is used by intelligence agencies when they want to eliminate an undesirable individual without unnecessary hassle: they simply irradiate the person long and hard enough for them to depart this sinful world, and the pathologist will find symptoms of some banal yet deadly disease during the autopsy. Convenient, isn’t it?
MICROWAVE RADIATION
Super high frequency radio radiation, ranging from 3 to 300 gigahertz (GHz) with a wavelength of 30 to 0.1 centimeters.
What’s it good for?
Microwaves, cell phones, and devices like Bluetooth, WiFi, and WiMAX. They all use microwave waves for operation, sparking heated debates about whether they are dangerous or not.
What’s the danger?
Excessive exposure to microwave radiation suppresses brain function, damages the nervous system and heart, and prolonged exposure to directed and high-frequency oscillations can drive a person insane, impair memory, and even zombify a very resilient individual. This means that sleeping with your head in an operating microwave for 20 years straight is harmful. No — very harmful! In all other cases (when the device is turned off, you are not near it non-stop, and so on), microwave radiation simply won’t affect you.
INFRASOUND
Waves with a length of 25 meters, which could be called sound waves if we could hear them in the frequency range from 25 to 0.01 Hz. Nevertheless, such sounds exist: they are created by vibrations occurring in the air, water, or earth’s surface — for example, during earthquakes or tsunamis. Operating machinery and cars traveling at speeds of a hundred kilometers per hour or more are also sources of infrasound.
What’s it good for?
Only whales derive obvious benefits from infrasound: they use it to communicate.
What’s the danger?
If you are not a whale, then a frequency of 7 Hz (matching the natural rhythms of the human brain) can cause nausea, ringing in the ears, blurred vision, and irrational fear. The more powerful the infrasound radiation, the more the brain and heart are affected; prolonged exposure guarantees complete blindness.
LIGHT
The light we see is also radiation, although the palette accessible to the human eye is only a small segment of the spectrum. The rest is detected only by instruments.
INFRARED RADIATION
It starts where the red part of the visible spectrum ends. You can be sure that any warm object emits infrared rays. And the human body too.
What’s it good for?
Providing pleasant warmth and comfortable sensations, especially if the source of infrared rays is equipped with shapely legs, plump lips, and a discernible bust.
What’s the danger?
Nothing, as long as you don’t overheat.
ULTRAVIOLET
Part of sunlight, always mentioned on sunglasses and sunscreen creams. It’s located in the spectrum almost where the pheasant sits — actually, just after the pheasant.
What’s it good for?
In reasonable amounts, it contributes to the production of vitamin D and a nice golden tan on winter-pale bodies.
What’s the danger?
Overuse of tanning beds and beaches can lead to skin cancer such as melanoma, basal cell carcinoma, skin photoaging, chicken skin, polar skin, and just blindness, cataracts, and conjunctivitis. In general, you already understand: the dose is the most important thing in any matter.
TOP-4 RADIATIONS
Most Famous — X-Rays
Once, German physicist Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen accidentally discovered radiation capable of penetrating many opaque objects and exposing photographic plates. By 1919, X-ray tubes were widely used for diagnosing fractures, and clever salesmen offered to peep at ladies through special X-ray binoculars. Mr. Roentgen himself was a selfless man, so he did not patent his invention and made no claims to anyone. However, he became the world’s first laureate of the Nobel Prize in Physics, which he generously donated to the reconstruction of post-war Germany, and died in poverty and loneliness from cancer (like most physicists working with radioactive elements in the first half of the last century).
Most Popular — Aura
Personal radiation of a person (and any living organisms), visible to KGB agents, fortune tellers, and other psychics. Essentially, it’s the glow (of a certain color or multiple colors) around us: the aura of an energetically strong individual is bright and extends about a meter and a half from the boundaries of the physical body, while a sick or tired person illuminates no more than 10 centimeters around them, and their halo is all in dark spots (holes). The aura was first photographed in 1939 by researchers, spouses Semyon and Valentina Kirlian, who studied the glow effect of electrical discharge on the surface of objects.
Most Profitable — Hartmann Grid
Bioenergetic stripes crossing the entire Earth like meridians and parallels but with a frequency of one and a half to two meters, starting from the depths of the earth and disappearing into space, penetrating through concrete, lead plates, and anything else. Along the stripes, active radicals of molecules, electrons, and protons accumulate, and at the intersection points, spots about 30 centimeters in size form—geopathic zones, which, they say, provoke a variety of diseases in children and adults. Whether this is true or not is genuinely unknown, but well-intimidated clients pay a decent fee to those who can find harmful places and neutralize them — that is, to dowsers with biolocators.
Most Energetic — Psi-Rays
When materialists hear about them, they immediately start spitting, throwing rotten tomatoes, tearing their hair out on themselves and opponents: due to the inertia of thinking, psi-rays are not taken into account by traditional physics and medicine (unlike the medieval Inquisition, which happily organized fire shows with citizens possessing powerful psychic energy). Nevertheless, many believe that psi-rays exist — they heal without medicine and generally help in life. Moreover, there are categories of citizens who are afraid to undergo remote psi-treatment — what if after it they kill their neighbors, walk to Antarctica on foot, and proclaim themselves emperors of all the local penguins?
