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coal miners carried canaries to warn of CO. chemical weapons workers brought bunnies in cages to monitor nerve gas leaks. it's an old tradition - it's simple, a
by sterlind 2y ago
coal miners carried canaries to warn of CO. chemical weapons workers brought bunnies in cages to monitor nerve gas leaks. it's an old tradition - it's simple, and it works.
though why not Geiger counters for radiation? there must be a reason.
- CamperBob2 2y agoIf there's enough CO to kill a canary, you still have time to get to safety. If there's enough nerve gas to kill a rabbit, you still have time to get to safety. If there's enough radiation to kill a fish, you're a walking dead man... and the 'walking' part is temporary.
- dudinax 2y agoMaybe the fish get less shielding.
- qup 2y agoMaybe it's concentrated in his water
- postalrat 2y agoWhat if you have a potential worrisome alpha emitter already in water. Keeping some fish in that water might give you heads up when something is going wrong.
- CamperBob2 2y agoThen, lacking the availability of an ISO-standard fish, you should probably use a scintillator or surface-barrier detector. Like everyone else who has to deal with such matters.
- labster 2y agoIf you teach a man a fish, he will eat for one lifetime. If you give a man a radioactive fish, he will eat for many half-lives.
- Terr_ 2y agoI'm no nuclear physicist, but a theory to try out: 1. The leak scenario they're concerned about is an alpha emitter within water, which-- unlike gamma rays and Geiger counters--is harder to detect remotely, since the water serves as effective shielding for anything but microscopic distances. 2. Permanent resident fish serve as a kind of long-term accumulator for dissolved amounts that would otherwise be too hard to detect. 3. The concern isn't so much immediate risks to human health, but rather how any slow leak or discrepancy might compromise the experiment.
- TeMPOraL 2y ago> though why not Geiger counters for radiation? there must be a reason. If a detector fish moves, it works. With Geiger counter, you may not be always able to tell when it malfunctions.