Re: " we're evolved for radiation " - geophysicist on polereversals

[Muckerheide <muckerheide@attbi.com>]

on 11/3/02 8:59 PM, John Jacobus at jenday1@MSN.COM wrote:



> Jaro,

> 

> What is meant by "we're evolved for radiation?"  Had humans evolved the last

> time it occurred, or was life more primitive?



What? This is just biology. Cells/organisms work the same in humans and all

eukaryotes. Even to prokaryote functions. (Even though organisms have

different rates, e.g., radiodurans repairs DNA a million times faster than

humans.)



"Evolutionary biology" shows that humans have "evolutionarily conserved DNA"

back to "primitive" cells.



[Last year I found these basics now in high school biology texts!]



Cells, and organisms, fail to function without radiation.  Radiation is not

something we "survive," it's essential.  Dose rates below about 0.01 mr/hr

cause physiological damage, with health consequences, not just irrelevant

chromosome aberrations, etc. [Note: <0.01 mr/hr equates to <90 mr/yr.]



Regards, Jim Muckerheide





> -- John

> 

> John Jacobus, MS

> Certified Health Physicist

> 3050 Traymore Lane

> Bowie, MD 20715-2024

> jenday1@email.msn.com (H)

> -----------------

> On Fri, 1 Nov 2002 13:46:12 -0500

> Jaroslav Franta  wrote:

> 

> On page 24 of the current (November) issue of Scientific American is an

> interesting "news scan" article about reversals of Earth's magnetic pole.

> Apparently the Earth's "global dipole has been diminishing precipitously for

> the past 150 years and at this rate could disappear entirely sometime early

> in the next millennium" -- disabling the magnetic radiation shield against

> cosmic and solar particles.

> 

> As you might expect, Hollywood will soon be releasing a disaster flick named

> The Core (Paramount Pictures), about a world with frequent radiation alerts

> and about a heroic attempt to restart the magnetic field by setting off

> nuclear explosions thousands of kilometres underground.

> The article concludes with the statement that "no major species extinctions

> correlate with past polarity reversals," quoting California Institute of

> Technology geophysicist Joseph L. Kirschvink as saying, "If there is a

> biological effect, we're evolved for it."

> . . .

> 

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