eli5 can nuclear radiation effect/mutate germs or viruses? if so, are there any examples?
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Yes, ionising radiation can cause mutations in any life form.
No, there aren’t any “examples” in the sense you’re after, because 99% of the time in real life mutations either have no noticeable affect or just kill the effected cell. It’s not going to create a superbug.
Yes, Ionizing radiation can affect microbial life (viruses). Ionizing radiation (nuclear radiation) is comprised of tiny particles (gamma, beta, etc) that are travelling so quickly and have such low mass that they effectively pass right through soft stuff, like living tissue.
When these particles blast through living tissue that contains DNA, it can break small bits of that DNA off. The organism may attempt a repair of that genetic material, but may not be successful (replacing T with A for example).
This broken DNA is what would lead to a mutation. Sometimes it’s what we would call cancer, where cells are replicating incorrectly (broken DNA) and potentially faster than normal.
The link below goes into a fair amount of detail on it.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S006535270860531X
I’m not a doctor, nor am I a biologist… But I am a geek of many interests, and how ionizing radiation affects living things is one of those interests. I’m sure other redditors in the medical and nuclear physiology fields could elaborate further, and may correct where I don’t fully understand the mechanism at play.
The international space station has some really tough molds and fungi that resist the radiation environment.
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20190628/Space-station-mold-may-be-tougher-to-kill-than-previously-expected.aspx
Slightly related, though not bacteria or viruses, ionizing radiation is a common way to induce mutations in plants.
Going back to around the 1920s one way to get new crops was to just hit some seeds with radiation and then see what happens.
The two biggest mutagens are radiation and chemicals. While radiation is more effective it is more likely kill the organism before it mutates. Chemical mutations are more common, a good example of this is animals with extra or less limbs than normal
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