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'Voting with feet' for/against Low vs. Hi Dose Rad! :-)
Friends, FYI.
Our great friends Drs. Yamada and Miyachi, and Dr. Kanao, dramatically demonstrate that organisms that can sense radiation at 15 and 30 times background, SEEK the rad source at 15 times background, and REJECT the rad source at 30 times background!
This is even more dramatic than, if not as compelling as, the rejection or elimination of tumors by the effect of LDR!
Regards, Jim Muckerheide
Radiation, Science, and Health
=====================
Short communication
Terrestrial isopods congregate under a low-level <http://www.sciencedirect.com/scidirimg/entities/beta.gif> -emitter source
Tomoko Kanaoa, Yukihisa Miyachi a and Takeshi Yamadab
a Department of Radiological Sciences, International University of Health and Welfare, Kitakanemaru 2600-1, Ohtawara-shi, Tochigi-ken 324-8501, Japan
b Low-Dose Radiation Research Center, Central Research Institute of Electric Power Industry, Komae-shi, Tokyo 201-8511, Japan
Received 23 November 2001; revised 12 February 2002; accepted 18 February 2002. Available online 28 May 2002.
Abstract
Ionizing radiation is ubiquitous, but very few experiments have investigated the biological effects of the natural background radiation at very low doses (>10 mGy/yr). We examined whether the background radiation, or radiation of a slightly higher level, has a role in evoking changes in behaviors of terrestrial isopods (woodlice). Upon exposure to a source giving 15 times the background level placed at one end of a box, a significant increase in the number of woodlice gathering under the <http://www.sciencedirect.com/scidirimg/entities/beta.gif> -source was observed with time, as compared with the sham control.
Terrestrial isopods have chemoreceptors (the olfactory system) on the terminal segment of their antennae. An additional experiment confirmed the involvement of these antennae in the radiation effect on behavior. After the excision of the antennae, no <http://www.sciencedirect.com/scidirimg/entities/beta.gif> -taxis response was observed. The behavior of the group exposed to the source giving 30 times the background tended to decrease gradually in the area of the source, and the individuals aggregated in the area away from the source. Thus, the olfactory sensor in the antennae may be an important organ involved in the prompt response to radiation exposure, and the discrimination of the radiation field strengths of radioisotopes.
Author Keywords: Radioisotope; Terrestrial isopod; Behavior; Environmental radioactivity; Hormesis
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