3 ms·
This is interesting but definitely not surprising by any means. LD50 for humans is something like 4 Gy. Depending on strain, E Coli have an LD50 of somewhere b
by klodolph 7y ago
This is interesting but definitely not surprising by any means.
LD50 for humans is something like 4 Gy. Depending on strain, E Coli have an LD50 of somewhere between 50 Gy and 500 Gy. Deinococcus radiodurans can survive 5000 Gy. Polypedilum vanderplanki can survive 7000 Gy. Various tardigrades will survive 1200-10000 Gy depending on species, state, and type of radiation.
So there are plenty of things that can survive 200 times the radiation dose that will kill a human, including an animal which is known to survive ~2500 times the dose that would kill a human.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- BurningFrog 7y agoHome Depot also carries spray that only causes me mild irritation but absolutely slaughters mold.
- astrobe_ 7y agoWhat makes them more "radiation-proof" than us?
- natechols 7y agoI don't know about the other organisms but in the case of Deinococcus, the answer is multiple redundant backups of its genome, combined with extremely robust DNA repair machinery.
- Causality1 7y agoExactly. "Space station mold survives 200 times the radiation dose that would kill a human" is as pointless a statement as "Human survives 200 times the amount of caffeine that would kill a hamster."