3 ms·
that makes intuitive sense but at least in the case of ionizing radiation it's a little like making a target circle bigger to protect the bullseye which remains
by ruined 6y ago
that makes intuitive sense but at least in the case of ionizing radiation it's a little like making a target circle bigger to protect the bullseye which remains the same size. there's still the same chance of hitting the bullseye, no matter how you change the chance of not missing the paper.
- jxy 6y agoThink of it as a 3D sphere instead. You would get a shielding effect.
- cma 6y agoThere is already one milligram of atmosphere over the cross sectional area of a cell nucleus, so it doesn't seem like it could change much for cosmic rays. All DNA in a human cell is about 6 picograms. That's 166 million times more mass of atmosphere. The elements may be less effective etc. but it still seems like any junk dna shielding would be negligible. Maybe cosmic rays aren't the main source of ionizing radiation throughout the evolutionary period though.
- davrosthedalek 6y agoIf the cell around is not shielding it, the little bit of extra DNA is not shielding it either. You need a lot more atoms to get a shielding effect.