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New drug offers radiation protection

CuttingEdge100 said:
I wonder what side-effects this drug has (both short and long term)
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"Monkeys exposed to radiation who received the medication survived without any side effects, he said. Seventy percent of those who did not receive the medication died."

No doubt any side effects would be a much better alternative to dying from radiation poisoning.

Msbae, the drug obviously has many uses outside of surviving a nuclear attack. There is a risk of radiation exposure in many industrial, scientific and medical settings for one. The article mentions chemotherapy patients.

And I'm sure that if you were a survivor of a nuclear attack that didn't threaten life on earth you'd be more than happy to have this available to you. A dirty bomb or a single small device on a container ship are much more realistic threats than China lobbing doomsday missiles at you.
 
FordSVT said:
CuttingEdge100 said:
I wonder what side-effects this drug has (both short and long term)
Click to expand...

"Monkeys exposed to radiation who received the medication survived without any side effects, he said. Seventy percent of those who did not receive the medication died."

No doubt any side effects would be a much better alternative to dying from radiation poisoning.

Msbae, the drug obviously has many uses outside of surviving a nuclear attack. There is a risk of radiation exposure in many industrial, scientific and medical settings for one. The article mentions chemotherapy patients.

And I'm sure that if you were a survivor of a nuclear attack that didn't threaten life on earth you'd be more than happy to have this available to you. A dirty bomb or a single small device on a container ship are much more realistic threats than China lobbing doomsday missiles at you.
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I doubt any nuclear attack is likely to happen. Everyone in the world knows that any attack on any scale will almost invariably lead to Global Thermonuclear exchange. Nobody wants to see that happen...
 
msbae said:
I doubt any nuclear attack is likely to happen. Everyone in the world knows that any attack on any scale will almost invariably lead to Global Thermonuclear exchange. Nobody wants to see that happen...
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Why would Al'Queda setting off a dirty bomb in a city inevitably result in a global thermonuclear exchange? And if a "real", explosive nuke went off in a city, and if they didn't have a specific country to point a finger at, do you assume that the US would just launch random ICBMs at randoms targets? Even if a specific country is fingered, an all-out nuclear attack is not a guarantee. And if a nuclear retaliation is in order, why would anyone else get in the way? Who's going to defend the country that attacked America with a nuclear weapon?

MAD only works when you're talking about semi-sane countries and people who are interested in their own self preservation anyway. It's the reason we are increasingly unlikely to see a civilization ending global conflict, but as time goes on and the resources and technology to create nuclear weaponry (65 year old technology remember) of different kinds becomes more attainable, the risk of some kind of smaller scale nuclear incident becomes more likely.
 
FordSVT said:
MAD only works when you're talking about semi-sane countries and people who are interested in their own self preservation anyway.
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Well, then I guess we better stop Iran from developing those damn nukes already and secure Pakistan's arsenal while we still have the chance.

The Russians need to handle their shit, too.
 
You expect disagreement on those points?

Though there isn't any way in hell Iran is going to be using nuclear weapons on anyone. I know some of the media would love for people to believe they're all psychotic, but they aren't. For the most part, their leadership are a bunch of chicken shit despots concerned only with amassing their own power and influence. They're not suicidal, and they aren't on a mission from Allah to destroy the Great Satan or The Joos in a rain of nuclear fire at the expense of their own lives.

I'd point out that Iran has not instigated a war with a neighbour in 500 years and that Ahmadinejad is just a mouthpiece who says shit to get attention and has no power to launch any kind of attack on anyone.
 
I wonder how much better this stuff is than potassium iodide? The article was kind of sparse on specifics.
 
Potassium Iodine protects your thyroid and your thyroid only. It works by saturating the gland with iodine so your body won't store radioactive iodine and cook you from within... so to speak.

Other routes for radiation absorption include the calcium-like elements being stored in the bones... this is why after Windscale and Chernobyl milk was dumped.

I have doubts that a fancy molecule will block atomic-level effects that cause the minute molecular failures that lead to radiation sickness.

...but it would be nice to be wrong. :)
 
^ It's possible, given the apparent immunity of some creatures to radiation damage.
 
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Well as usual, the popular press doesn't differentiate between types of radiation; absorbing radioactive particles fallout is a lot different from getting blasted with gamma rays. But if it helps cells to protect or repair their DNA/RNA, I guess it would help with both - and if that's the case, it's also pretty friggin' amazing.
 
FordSVT said:
You expect disagreement on those points?

Though there isn't any way in hell Iran is going to be using nuclear weapons on anyone. I know some of the media would love for people to believe they're all psychotic, but they aren't. For the most part, their leadership are a bunch of chicken shit despots concerned only with amassing their own power and influence. They're not suicidal, and they aren't on a mission from Allah to destroy the Great Satan or The Joos in a rain of nuclear fire at the expense of their own lives.

I'd point out that Iran has not instigated a war with a neighbour in 500 years and that Ahmadinejad is just a mouthpiece who says shit to get attention and has no power to launch any kind of attack on anyone.
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I expect no disagreements. What you say about Iran is true. However, they are running their mouth too much. Refusing to cooperate with the IAEA won't end well for them, either. It sure didn't end well for Saddam...
 
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