This just in from here. It is a short article so I posted the entire thing: [Mod Note: Posting an entire article is a Copyright violation, so I've clipped it for you. The link is still there for people to follow. --RJ]
So it is possible to shield against them. Just a matter of making the technology light enough to equip a spaceship with, then.
Makes me think of a Blackadder conversation... "They say the rains beats down so hard it makes your head bleed!" "Some sort of hat seems to be in order, then..."
Wow, gee, magnetic fields could protect the astronauts. Too bad we don't know how to make those - Oh Wait! Over sensationalistic article is over sensationalistic. Also, I think they are taking the phrase "colonize space" to literally. Most people include other planets when they use the phrase.
To be fair to the authors, most people would think colonize means to settle somewhere eventually. The problem discussed in the article is that it will take a 'generation ship' to reach planets outside our own solar system. The hypothesis put forth is that generation ships will not work until we find a way to protect passenger fertility during the trip.
I think using "never" in the title of the article is a little bit much. How many "impossible" things has the human race achieved already?
I can’t take seriously any article written by someone who apparently has no clue what a galaxy is. At 100,000 light-years across and with between 100 billion and 400 billion stars, our own Milky Way galaxy is plenty big enough.
*Heh* 'zero-G docking maneuvers'... Sorry, that's the only thing I can take away from the article. I refuse to take seriously articles that seem like they're talking to idiots.
It was once believed that it was "impossible" for humans to travel more than 45 miles an hour without getting sever facial deformities, heck it was even once believed the sound barrier would never be broken. So you'll ecxuse me if I don't put a lot of stock into stuff like this.