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Gamma radiation is produced in large tropical thunderstorms

phys.org

81–90 of 136 posts

Re: Gamma radiation is produced in large tropical thunderstorms

#81

Does this help to explain the genetic diversity of the tropical latitudes; is the genetic mutation rate higher in the presence of gamma radiation? So many of our plants and flowers (here in North America) originate from rainforests and tropical latitudes, but survive at current temps for northern latitudes.

No, insignificant

Re: Gamma radiation is produced in large tropical thunderstorms

#82

Does this help to explain the genetic diversity of the tropical latitudes; is the genetic mutation rate higher in the presence of gamma radiation? So many of our plants and flowers (here in North America) originate from rainforests and tropical latitudes, but survive at current temps for northern latitudes.

No, insignificant Is diverse because there is more biomass

Re: Gamma radiation is produced in large tropical thunderstorms

#83
If you dropped a thing through a storm to the water, would it charge the thing, from gamma radiation?

TIL carbon nano yarn absorbs electricity, probably from storm clouds too.

What are the volt and charge observations for lightning from large tropical thunderstorms?

(And why is it dangerous to attract arc discharge toward a local attractor? And what sort of supercapacitors and anodes can handle charge from a lightning bolt? Lightning!)

Tardigrades can handle Gamma radiation.

"Researchers create new type of composite material for shielding against neutron and gamma radiation" (2024) https://phys.org/news/2024-05-composite-material-shielding-n... :

"Sm2O3 micron plates/B4C/HDPE composites containing high specific surface area fillers for neutron and gamma-ray complex radiation shielding" https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S02663...

Re: Gamma radiation is produced in large tropical thunderstorms

#84
post #2

Positively charged particles end up at the top of the storm while negatively charged particles drop to the bottom, creating an enormous electric field that can be as strong as 100 million AA batteries stacked end-to-end. Or put another way, 150 MV. What's with this media obsession with using obscure non-SI units?

One form is stating hey, scientific fact that the audience may or may not understand. The other form uses language the audience understands specifically to build up their knowledge. Reducing their confusion also helps them enjoy the article.

So, the journalist are optimizing their writing style For the majority of people to understand and enjoy the writing. That’s probably the best way to write.

Re: Gamma radiation is produced in large tropical thunderstorms

#85
This somehow reminds me of the fact that you can produce (surprisingly high-quality) x-rays by unrolling scotch tape in a vacuum chamber[0][1]. I wonder if it turns out to be related in any way. Thunderstorms aren't a vacuum of course, but I dunno, maybe all that frozen hail being thrown around can bumping into each other still involves a similar underlying mechanism somewhere.

[0] https://www.nature.com/articles/nature07378

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-o66AYhEIsU&

Re: Gamma radiation is produced in large tropical thunderstorms

#87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my neck of the woods it's called "journalist units": three soccer fields, five blue whales etc. Somebody even created a website to facilitate conversion but unfortunately the TLS certificate has expired and Cloudflare now blocks access. Article in Danish: https://ing.dk/artikel/lynch-nu-kan-ogsaa-journalister-faa-s...

> Somebody even created a website to facilitate conversion but unfortunately the TLS certificate has expired and Cloudflare now blocks access. This is one of the main arguments I was using in discussions with people advocating unconditional use of HTTPS everywhere. Yes, in theory it's a good thing. Yes, in theory it should be a solved problem and you wouldn't see any broken websites anymore. In practice, we lost a sm…

A small part of the web that was either archived already, or wasn't interesting enough to be archived in the first place.

I get your sentiment but at some point you have to let go. Many websites die every day not because of obsolescence but because the author eventually stops renewing the domain or paying their hosting provider.

It's just a part of life.

Re: Gamma radiation is produced in large tropical thunderstorms

#88

I wonder if this is in any way responsible for the increased biodiversity there - maybe a slightly higher mutation rate?

Interesting thought, but you'd have to extract the effect from all the environmental factors like abundant water, a warm climate, soils, etc...

Re: Gamma radiation is produced in large tropical thunderstorms

#89

I wonder if this is in any way responsible for the increased biodiversity there - maybe a slightly higher mutation rate?

Makes sense. Isn’t this one method that new crops are made, by radiating seeds and seeing what new diversity arises.
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