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On why we fear radiation >nuclear accidents remind us of nuclear bombs and our vulnerability to them. I disagree. I think we fear radiation because we know the
by mLuby 7y ago
On why we fear radiation
>nuclear accidents remind us of nuclear bombs and our vulnerability to them.
I disagree. I think we fear radiation because we know there is a lethal threat present but we can't individually detect it, like nerve gas or perhaps something like Ebola. It triggers our threat response without giving us a clear source for the danger, which causes the generalized fear.
- lixtra 7y ago> there is a lethal threat present but we can't individually detect it But this is true for so many pollutants: lead in the water, mercury in lamps...
- erentz 7y agoRadiation is definitely creepy and poorly understood. There was a great video by the Veritasium guy on it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRL7o2kPqw0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRL7o2kPqw0 Punch line, you definitely wanna stay away from ciggarettes if you don't like radiation. There's also this crazy woman (I think she's German?) who likes to go play with radiation sources. She has the most dead pan voice that barely changes except to possibly register some excitement when she finds a particularly hot source of radiation. She has a bunch of videos exploring Chernobyl. It's quite interesting for example to watch her pick apart dirt to find the single hot particle: https://youtu.be/C9npqRJ_9P8?t=150 https://youtu.be/C9npqRJ_9P8?t=150