The Woman Who Ate Chernobyl's Apples • Hacker News Board

Re: The Woman Who Ate Chernobyl's Apples

#71

Post by gambiter » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 12:18 PM UTC

grecy wrote: post #13

tdicola wrote: post #4

Awesome! I've been following bionerd23's youtube channel for a while and really enjoy the videos she's done. Glad to see more folks being introduced to her too!

Genuine question from someone that doesn't understand. Is she exposing herself to more radiation than is safe? Is there a very high likelihood she's going to make herself sick? I watched this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kg4vVYKc90 and she seems to be pretty callous with that hot particle.

Watch the video with her eating the apple. She goes on to show the actual measurements, and explains the reason she could be so cavalier about it. She brings up a very interesting point, that the people who have a knee-jerk reaction to the apples wouldn't have the same reaction to her eating a bavarian mushroom, even though the mushroom has more cesium 137 in it.

It certainly seems that she knows what she is doing, and isn't just jumping in for giggles when the meters start beeping. She even mentions the inverse square law in the video you linked.

Re: The Woman Who Ate Chernobyl's Apples

#72

Post by pizza234 » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 12:24 PM UTC

personlurking wrote: post #34

danieldrehmer wrote: post #20

I live in a city in Brazil where there was a very grave cesium leak, and two people involved in the incident ended up eating a cesium sandwich, including a little girl. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goiânia_accident#Ivo_and_his_da...

I understood that the two people ate a sandwich and a little girl. I'm glad that wasn't the case. This part seemed quite crazy, though: "She was buried in a common cemetery in Goiânia, in a special fiberglass coffin lined with lead to prevent the spread of radiation. Despite these measures, there was still a riot in the cemetery where over 2,000 people, fearing that her corpse would poison the surrounding area, tried…

Well, it's not as crazy as it sounds, in a certain perspective.

If you guarantee that "hey! nuclear stuff is absolutely safe, there will never be problems whatsoever!", but then incidents happen, it's reasonable that people is skeptical when you say "hey! that coffin is absolutely safe, there will never be problems whatsoever!".

This could be extended as a reasonable doubt of nuclear energy in general (I don't claim to support it; just accept it as reasonable).

Re: The Woman Who Ate Chernobyl's Apples

#73

Post by ghostberry » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 12:26 PM UTC

rasz_pl wrote: post #7

Hah, I knew it was about Bionerd when I saw the title :) I remember subscribing to her YT channel around 2010 after https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GIEO0lQV7rU

I thought exactly the same, though https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj0HDN82Pfo is the video that got me to subscribe.

I love her channel.

Re: The Woman Who Ate Chernobyl's Apples

#74

Post by ck2 » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 12:26 PM UTC

If the 23 in her username is her age, she is going to get cancer before 50.

BTW did that radiation from Japan make it to California?

Because we all might be eating a little of that radiation if so.

Unless rain somehow filters radiation but I doubt that.

Re: The Woman Who Ate Chernobyl's Apples

#75

Post by placeybordeaux » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 12:34 PM UTC

ck2 wrote: post #74

If the 23 in her username is her age, she is going to get cancer before 50. BTW did that radiation from Japan make it to California? Because we all might be eating a little of that radiation if so. Unless rain somehow filters radiation but I doubt that.

Why do you say she will have cancer before 50?

Re: The Woman Who Ate Chernobyl's Apples

#76

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 12:43 PM UTC

allendoerfer wrote: post #66

My problem with nuclear disasters or really any kind of bigger scale environmental damage is, that you have no control over other people's actions and failures. You therefore can not argue, that the technology is fine as long as we all use it securely, because you simply can not ensure that for countries you have no control over. And it is not only the small countries. We trust developed nations with nuclear technolo…

[deleted]

Re: The Woman Who Ate Chernobyl's Apples

#77

Post by caramel » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 12:50 PM UTC

ehmmm wrote: post #14

grecy wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Genuine question from someone that doesn't understand. Is she exposing herself to more radiation than is safe? Is there a very high likelihood she's going to make herself sick? I watched this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6kg4vVYKc90 and she seems to be pretty callous with that hot particle.

One her comments: well, if its over 100 mSv/h, then acute radiation sickness begins after ~2 hours (noticable reduced blood cell count from 200 mSv acute dose onward, though you'd only FEEL sick after another 3 or 4 hours). but yeah, as the inverse square law applies, there's nothing to fear with this particle. and yep, the spectrum was done by a HPGe, as usual. :)

Then of course, if some speck of radioactive material gets lodged in your body the inverse square law works against you.

Re: The Woman Who Ate Chernobyl's Apples

#78

Post by icebraining » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 1:11 PM UTC

panamafrank wrote: post #43

Is Chernobyl the site of the worlds worst nuclear disaster or some "novel" tourist attraction?

Both.

Re: The Woman Who Ate Chernobyl's Apples

#79

Post by michael_h » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 2:03 PM UTC

precisioncoder wrote: post #45

swamp40 wrote: post #9

Don't think I'd be quoting Madame Curie, if I were her.

Why not? I'm assuming you're implying that Marie Curie's research shortened her life. Marie Curie lived until age 66 in 1934. Life expectancy according to this ( http://ourworldindata.org/data/population-growth-vital-stati... ) random google search for 1935 in France was 58.09. This means that Marie Curie's life was 113% longer then usual for her time. The current life expectancy in the USA is 78.74 according to the…

13% longer, not 113% longer. I know, nitpicky.

Re: The Woman Who Ate Chernobyl's Apples

#80

Post by personlurking » Wed, Apr 22, 2015, 2:11 PM UTC

rustsucks wrote: post #39

personlurking wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understood that the two people ate a sandwich and a little girl. I'm glad that wasn't the case. This part seemed quite crazy, though: "She was buried in a common cemetery in Goiânia, in a special fiberglass coffin lined with lead to prevent the spread of radiation. Despite these measures, there was still a riot in the cemetery where over 2,000 people, fearing that her corpse would poison the surrounding area, tried…

It seems hard to understand in our eyes, but you have to appreciate the lack of education and superstition in Brazil. If you ever read the famous feedback from Feynman about the standard of teaching in Brazil (shit) then you would know why.

I should have clarified I meant from a US perspective.

Also, as an adult, I've spent several years living all over Brazil so I'm familiar with their education system and religious beliefs. I don't find the riot so strange when considering the experiences I had in Brazil.