How to Survive a Real-Life 'Fallout'

This week Reactions is checking out some Fallout science. Does chemistry allow you to survive a real fallout? It’s a big week for gamers now that the long-anticipated Fallout 4 video game is out. The series takes place in a world decades after nuclear war has destroyed most of civilization. Only those who hid in fallout shelters survived. While this idea works in a fictional game universe, could humans really survive for years or even decades in such a shelter? This week, Reactions looks at the basics of survival in a world riddled with radiation.

Special thanks to the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Special Grant Program in the Chemical Sciences for funding this episode.

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Music:
8-Bit Win! - Video Game Music - HeatleyBros
Gyrocop - Studio_1
Mission Impossible Game Cinematic Action Trailer 1-2 - Sound_Idea

Producer:
Sean Parsons

Writer:
Alison Le
Noel Waghorn

Executive Producer:
Adam Dylewski

Scientific consultants:
Raychelle Burks, Ph.D.
Darcy Gentleman, Ph.D.

[yeenmachine]

props for referencing fallout and fallout 2.

[tony]

2:08.
Yeah, walk up to a death claw and say shew shew. See what happens :D

[Baseless_]

what about air? I've heard that it's important

[dllmv]

I always like when science can explain/show evidence the possibility of fictional worlds in real life.

[alexstillwell]

There is a slight oversight in the video. While alpha particles are ionizing, they are too large to penetrate almost anything, so the outer layer of your skin will typically protect you from them. As the outermost layer of your skin, the stratum corneum, is made up of cells without nuclei, cancer isn't possible from alpha particles.

[adrianparejo]

the best way is to prevent it from happening.

[sonell]

I'd bring Chuck Norris to my vault.

[interstellarbruce]

eveybody too busy playing fallout 4. except me because im stuck at school, and my after school activities cancelled at the last moment. :(

[xdarkfoxx]

"What would you bring into vault?"
My family ._.

[spartanwar]

Woah woah woah! You didn't even talk about personal sanity or air sources..you can't just make a steel box underground and get a big battery and some food/water and prepare to live a long life..it takes MUUUCH more to sustain something like that and you end the video in less than 5 minutes!

[TheEctomancer]

I'd bring a fully loaded Kindle and a hand crank flashlight with USB charging ports.

[Conman-rqiw]

How he said that most of the remaining population came from vaults but really in the game most of the people just survived because the vaults were experiments and most residents were killed or mutated

[danske]

Likes, likes never change. Even if the video hadn't been as informative and interesting as it was, that'd be an instant like.

[unluckyeddy]

You have your nitrogen cycle wrong. Fish produce Ammonia, which bacteria turn into Nitrite which become Nitrate.

[paskky]

We have the same firepower of Fallout's universe, but we don't have the same Vaults.

_nervous noises_

[siyacer]

use nanoparticles, use hydroponics and aquaponics, turn water into steam to turn a turbine and turn the steam back into water, and use moisture from the air, filter it, and then turn it into water. Boom. And use fuel cells. BOOM! And wi-fi please.

[Flowreac]

haven't even watched the video but I saw many of your videos on the right as suggested videos, and instantly subscribed haha I wanna watch them all they all look sooo interesting :)) xD
all the love - FLO

[dhruvgajjar]

BOOKS! And a piano, guitar, flute, recorder and drums. Canned food (already in vault), bottled water (already in vault) and games. Weapons including:blast knuckles, guns, knives, bows, large metal softball bat, grenade, EMP, TV, bed, oven, isolation chambers, torture chamber, holding cells

[taylorw]

What would I bring to the vault? Nothing except a single lima bean, no gear, no food, no clothes and no dignity. I only need a single lima bean to survive.

[emameyer]

2:32 "fuel cells don't need to be recharged"
2:34 "as long as they get a constant supply of fuel"

now, go over that again. slowly...