What is radiation? How harmful is it?

Is radiation dangerous? Is ionizing air a good idea? Why do some people swallow radioactive iodine? Is it right that some scientists claim small doses of radioactivity are beneficial? And what is radiation to begin with? That's what you will learn in this video.

References for Radiation Safety Standards:

You can join the chat on this video today (Saturday Dec 26) at 6pm CET/noon Eastern Time here:

#physics #science #education

0:00 Intro
0:38 What is radiation?
2:39 The radiation checklist
2:52 What is radiation made of?
5:57 What's the energy?
9:36 How many particles are there?
10:25 What does radiation do to the body?
13:59 Sponsor Message

[ieh]

Hello Sabine, I got your book Lost in Math as a Christmas present, so far I'm really enjoying the read and your writing style (in particular your humor).
I'd like to say thank you for inspiring me (someone who's still in school, but plans to go into physics) and many others.

[BushCampingTools]

I love it, "The physics is simple, the biology isn't" As a biologist, i really love that statement! Great video as always!

[k.vincentwoods]

You have sparked an interest in science. Science is truly amazing.

[MultiLeandrini]

"the physics is simple but the biology isn't"
True indeed! Messy as hell but promissing!

[johnnyb]

I have been exposed to radiation in high doses, additionally my x wife also. My x wife developed Graves disease as mentioned by Sabina here, and she did take the radioactive Iodine pill and it worked flawlessly. On a side note, they typically give you the option of actual surgery to remove portions of your thyroid gland however this surgery is very risky and has potential of significant morbidity. I had a very large pituitary tumor that surgery was unsuccessful at removing and so I had radiation treatment to render it inert. The technical term for the treatment I received was fractionated stereotactic radiotherapy treatments over 30 days once per day. I will say, if you are exposed to beams of proton radiation in your head you can feel it hitting you and it manifests as a bright blue light, sorta like a cross between the blue of lightning and a tanning bed. When I received a blast of this radiation I could feel it hitting my forehead or the top of my head or back like someone pointing a garden hose at me with blue light pouring out. The oncologist explained to me that an outside observer does not see the light, it's the radiation hitting my optic nerves and "inducing" the perception of bright blue light. the treatment I received was from a system called Novalis Tx and it saved my life.

[talleyhoe]

This is the kind of vid that really shows just what a valuable resource Youtube can actually be.

[lucasjung]

I discovered your chanel just now and I'm in love with it, I'm already two days straight watching many videos I always had curiosity to know about and always thought "why no one explain this?" And here you are, explaining so much, so scientifically, your uses of logic are amazing, thank you so much for your videos

[karlpoulin]

Thank you Sabine and happy holidays 🥰

[kirkjohnson]

I am relatively new to your channel and I want to say how much I appreciate the videos you make. I love science but I am not well educated in it. I appreciate your genius of being able to simplify subjects - but not TOO simple. Really, your work is just perfect for someone like me. Thanks

[Chipicui]

Sabine, thank you very much. You’re a brilliant communicator and it’s always a pleasure to learn from you.
I appreciate your deep knowledge and your critical thinking.

[tonyrome]

Good job of explaining radiation. You are correct about the complexity of radiation safety. I was the radiation safety officer for three companies. While you can predict the effects of an acute high level exposure long term effects of an exposure for an individual is unpredictable, yet statistically significant for a group of individuals receiving a similar dose. Probably the worst thing for an individual is a long term low level dose from an ingested substance. Smoking is one such ingestion mechanism. Radon in the smoke is deposited in the lungs as a radioactive isotope of lead. Body tissues are exposed continuously to low level radiation, many individuals then develop lung cancer. And that is an over simplification. I have seen the whole body radiation counts for smokers, their lungs "glow" bright!!

[doomedtolinger]

Always good to cover the basics; absorbed a few more interesting facts. Thanks Sabine!...

[konstantinparchevsky]

Sabine, thank you for your nice explanation. I am a physicist, and what immediately caught my attention (I almost spilled my coffee) is your definition of radiation as "energy transfer by waves or particles". Actually, I never bored to define for myself what "radiation" exactly means, because every time it is clear from the context what I am dealing with (sometimes to remove the ambiguity we use word "radiation" in combination with other words like "electromagnetic radiation", "acoustic radiation"). But, if we decide to define radiation, I would exclude "particle" from this definition. Otherwise, you cannot distinguish between radiation and convection, or you have to admit, that electric current is radiation (because in both cases energy is transferred by particles). We do not want to climb this rabbit hole.

[adamfilipkalle]

7:38 the sounds cuts in the last part of the sentece, what did i miss? ..."also cause"...

I so like how you present and the down to earth way you are able to present all these subjects, i so wished you where my teacher 25 years ago.

[NotAyFox]

This is quickly becoming my favourite science channel.

[mariomarinich]

Hi Sabine!!! I want to express two things: firstly I really appreciate your teachings in Physics. I’ve been involved because of my studies with a certain amount of physics in the past and I eagerly follow some scientists to learn a little more about our Universe. Secondly I saw your video about Speaking English and I can say that I really like to hear you speaking!!! It’s a neutral accent and I, being for Argentina and having Spanish as my mother tongue, really appreciate each and every word you speak. And believe me, I can cope with English without any problem but I’m far away from an educated English speaking person, but you DON’T have a single mistake! It’s really a pleasure watch your videos just for knowledge of both, science and English. Thank you! I really admire you!!!! Kisses from Argentina!!!

[markpats]

You answer ordinary ppls everyday worries and thoughts based on science!

[MrDaewen]

That was extremely informative and easy to understand. Thank you Sabine.

[TheFrankHuda]

7:36 "...which is not healthy" is still in the closed captioning Sabine.

[dwinsemius]

Agree with the Great Courses recommendation. I have gotten several and the one that impressed me most was "Thermodynamics: Four Laws That Move the Universe". (There are probably many others worth viewing.)