5 ms·

My first thought: maybe we will live longer because of less cancer from those charged particles? Our nuclear subs are helping us live longer! My second thought

My first thought: maybe we will live longer because of less cancer from those charged particles? Our nuclear subs are helping us live longer! My second thought: those particles are essential for mutagenesis, which is a primary driver of evolution, not just in us but everything. The sixth great species extinction we are causing is not enough, we're literally living in an evolutionary bubble, decreasing the likelihood that whatever survives us will be able to adapt over millions of years.

Filligree 9y ago
You don't need to worry about that second one. The rate at which mutations happen is itself controlled by evolution, through some pretty sophisticated mechanisms, and if it drops that way it'll just adjust itself right back up.
- dflock 9y ago
  I imagine that feedback loop is surprisingly long.
  - astrodust 9y ago
    A million years is an instant as far as the universe is concerned.
tiagoespinha 9y ago
And so the Asgard were born. (-- Stargate Sg1 joke).