5 ms·
> Korneyev’s sense of humor remained intact, though. He seemed to have no regrets about his life’s work. “Soviet radiation,” he joked, “is the best radiation in
by maltalex 8y ago
> Korneyev’s sense of humor remained intact, though. He seemed to have no regrets about his life’s work. “Soviet radiation,” he joked, “is the best radiation in the world.”
Wow.
How does one survive multiple visits to "the Elephant's Foot" long enough to tell these jokes?
- userbinator 8y agoHumans (and other organisms in general) have a rather wide range of tolerance to such things, and it's the reason why an "LD50" exists. Not everyone who received the same dose will react with the same severity. Hence you will hear about people who have smoked a pack a day yet lived into their 90s without cancer, asbestos workers without lung problems, etc. What is responsible for this "robustness" is an interesting question to research itself. That said, this guy happened to be particularly well-suited to his job.
- bduerst 8y ago>Hence you will hear about people who have smoked a pack a day yet lived into their 90s without cancer At least for this, it's thought to be specifically linked to cyp p450 polymorphism. As the enzyme breaks down the carbon molecules from smoking, it creates free radicals which can cause cancer. People who express less of the enzyme experience a lower frequency of cancer from smoking, hypothetically.
- imhoguy 8y agoHe is like the true Stalker. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalker_(1979_film) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalker_(1979_film)
- x0x0 8y agohere's more details about him https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/04/27/science/chernobyl-capping-a-catastrophe.html https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2014/04/27/science/chern...
- dvh 8y agoHow? The answer is "Nohavica's theory of alcoholic mountain". As you drink, you are climbing your alcoholic mountain. While you're climbing, everything is fine. You can even turn around and go back. But when you reach the summit and step over it, you are done. Nobody will help you. No doctors, no therapy, friends or medicine. Nobody. Then you die. Now you say "but my uncle was drinking whole life and he was fine". Sure, because his mountain was very tall. Nobody knows how tall is his mountain. This Russian scientist had very tall radiation mountain. You try doing the same and you will die.
- thanatos_dem 8y agoDo you have any source for that? I have some friends suffering from alcoholism that could probably use hearing something like that, but google isn’t turning up anything.
- tmoravec 8y agoIt's a joke from a movie. No science here.
- Gibbon1 8y agoFriends mom was a ICU nurse. She said the effects of drinking and smoking begin to kill people in their mid to late forties. The most susceptible develop liver failure or COPD[1] in their forties and start checking out soon after. Not that many people at that age but grows substantially each decade after. [1] She said about liver disease and COPD, you think cancer is bad. Cancer isn't a death sentence. She said in your 20's you don't know which group you're in.