Re: 'Voting with feet' for/against Low vs. Hi Dose Rad! :-)

[SAFarberMSPH@CS.COM]

Radsafe:

For what its worth. Insects/Spiders avoiding high radiation sources is a long-standing observation. I recall being fascinated as a child [back in the late 1950s or very early 60s at the latest] reading a very brief comment in a respected radiation effects journal of the day, The Readers Digest to the best of my recollection, that spiders will quickly move away from radioactive sources introduced near them. 


I remember being intrigued as to how spiders would sense the radiation exposure, but the Readers Digest note gave no hint. I never did any experiments with radiation and spiders, but did determine that spiders had a hard time running from DDT.


Stewart Farber

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In a message dated 5/31/02 9:48:51 AM Pacific Daylight Time, jacobusj@ors.od.nih.gov writes:



> Subj:RE: 'Voting with feet' for/against Low vs. Hi Dose Rad! :-)
>
> Date:5/31/02 9:48:51 AM Pacific Daylight Time
>
> From:    jacobusj@ors.od.nih.gov (Jacobus, John (OD/ORS))
>
> Sender:    owner-radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu
>
> Reply-to: jacobusj@ors.od.nih.gov (Jacobus, John (OD/ORS))
>
> To:    jmuckerheide@cnts.wpi.edu ('Jim Muckerheide'), radsafe@list.vanderbilt.edu, rad-sci-l@ans.ep.wisc.edu
>
>
>
>
>
> Jim,
>
> I am a little confused.  How does the woodlice detect the radiation?  By
>
> smell?  If that is the case, does the woodlice detect radiation or some
>
> byproduct, like ozone?