[ RadSafe ] Three Nobel Prize winners calculated the genetic damage of nuclear energy

[KARAM, PHILIP]

Muller		Physiology/medicine, 1946
Lederberg	Physiology/medicine, 1958
Pauling		Chemistry, 1954; Peace, 1962

Obviously, we cannot dismiss science just because it's several decades old (we still accept Darwin's work, for example). On the other hand, there have been such substantial advances in genetics, our understanding of cancer, and our understanding of DNA damage and repair in the last few decades that I'm not sure we can simply accept conclusions reached a half century ago without re-examining them in their entirety - even from three Nobel laureates. 

Winning the Nobel Prize obviously marks someone as being very bright - but not infallible. As one example, Fermi's Nobel Prize was given for (among other things) creating transuranic elements via neutron bombardment when, in fact, he failed to realize he'd been fissioning atoms. In Physiology and Medicine (Moniz) won the prize for promoting lobotomies and another (Fibiger) claimed to find a microbe (S. carcinoma) that caused cancer. Muller's work has also engendered some degree of controversy, with suggestions that he overlooked or ignored data that didn't fit his research goals.  And any number of Nobel winners have gotten into trouble by speaking outside of their areas of excellence - primarily on social or political topics. 

The bottom line is that Nobel laureates are undeniably smart people - but they are still human and they still make mistakes. Given that - and especially given a field in which we've learned so much since these pronouncements were made - I would be hesitant to accept these statements and calculations without a thorough examination to see if they still remain valid after more than a half-century of research.

Andy

P. Andrew Karam, PhD, CHP
NYPD Counterterrorism
One Police Plaza, Room 1109
New York, NY 10038
(718) 615-7055 (desk)
(646) 879-5268 (mobile)


-----Original Message-----
From: radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu [mailto:radsafe-bounces at health.phys.iit.edu] On Behalf Of Roger Helbig
Sent: Thursday, October 15, 2015 9:08 PM
To: RADSAFE
Subject: [ RadSafe ] Three Nobel Prize winners calculated the genetic damage of nuclear energy

Is their research still valid considering current knowledge?

Roger Helbig

here is the original very anti-nuclear blog - https://tekknorg.wordpress.com/2015/10/14/three-nobel-prize-winners-calculated-the-genetic-damage-of-nuclear-energy/

---------- Forwarded message ----------

To understand. how the Nuclear Darwinism works. Radiation induced mutations are not dominant enough to show up immediately. It takes some generations.

The following links contain the knowledge about genetic deaths and mutations by radiation. Written by three Nobel Prize Winners: Herman Joseph Muller, Joshua Lederberg, Linus Pauling. They calculated the damage of nuclear energy, in…

Christina MacPherson | October 15, 2015 at 7:52 pm | URL: http://wp.me/phgse-kRc _______________________________________________
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