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I have a hypothesis that the polonium poisoners weren't planning on being detected. Polonium has no side effects other than radiation poisoning which can't be
by cynicalkane 8y ago
I have a hypothesis that the polonium poisoners weren't planning on being detected.
Polonium has no side effects other than radiation poisoning which can't be detected outside the body. To diagnose it, one would have to go looking for trace amounts in the body or in contaminated areas. If the poisoners weren't aware of the extreme sensitivity of alpha-particle detection -- reliably accurate to the single particle level -- they might have thought polonium would be undetectable and untraceable. Or they might of thought nobody would ever think to look for it. By some accounts, they almost didn't.
- sephamorr 8y agoYou're spot on here. As I understand, the Russian state was quite surprised at the capabilities of Western detection science. It was certainly not common knowledge that low-concentration alpha emitters (still plenty poisonous) could be detected in blood, nor that the assassins could be tracked all the way back to Russia just from their limited exposure.
- cynicalkane 8y agoThe science is actually old and certainly known to physicists around the world. Such detectors are readily available to university physics laboratories, for example. But if you don't have a physics background, it might never occur to you that such technology exists.