Eli5: How does radioactivity kill/mutate the body?

511 views

Apologies if the tag is wrong!

From what I understand, the radiation doesn’t do squat untill it’s ionized. The way it was explained to me is that the Radiation is the knife, while the ionization is the hand weilding the knife.

So how does it affect the body? I know it does something to our DNA but what does it do specifically?

Bonus Question: What did scifi writers assume Gamma Ray’s would do to Bruce Banner to make him the Hulk, as opposed to what it does IRL and just… kill you.

In: 63

21 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

You know how uv light burns your skin? I always imagine radiation being the same, but it burns every layer of your body. Sometimes the DNA is what gets burned/damaged and that where the mutations and cancer can kick in.

You are viewing 1 out of 21 answers, click here to view all answers.