Radiation

A very small pilot study has found several treatments of low-dose radiation, delivered from a CT scanner, could increase alertness and responsiveness in people suffering severe late-stage Alzheimer’s disease. However, the research is still preliminary.

Fresh research has cast doubt on the theory that energetic outbursts from young stars blows away the cocoon of gas from which they formed, which in turn prevents them from growing any further.

Giving a new meaning to the word "moonshine," NASA scientists at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California, have concluded that Jupiter's moon Europa glows in the dark due to being constantly bombarded with high-energy radiation.

We know radiation therapy for cancer is an aggressively toxic treatment methodology. New research suggests certain gut bacteria species may protect an organism from the harmful effects of radiation, and human trials are planned to test these findings.

Radiation is a major danger of space travel, and with human crews heading back to the Moon it’s important to understand the risks. Now we have the clearest data on that to date, thanks to an instrument onboard the Chinese lunar lander Chang’e-4.

Progress on quantum computers may soon stall. Cosmic rays streaming to Earth can interfere with the integrity of information in quantum computers, and now an MIT team has shown just how vulnerable they are and what it might take to protect them.

A new diagnostic tool developed by scientists at Ohio State University promises to drastically reduce the time needed to detect radiation sickness, by measuring a pair of key biomarkers in just a single drop of blood.

Radiation is famously damaging to materials, but now engineers at MIT have been surprised to discover that radiation may actually help certain alloys to self-heal, extending their useful lifetime. This could help inform future power plant designs.

Ideally, we protect the body from radiation damage before it reaches us with shielding materials. Researchers have now developed a new nanocrystal treatment that could prevent some of the tissue damage radiation causes.

Scientists at EMPA have developed a new aerogel-based material that blocks a wide range of electromagnetic radiation frequencies, forming what they describe as by far the lightest electromagnetic shielding material in the world.

A new study has revealed that a cataclysmic disruption of Earth’s protective ozone layer may have allowed damaging levels of ultraviolet (UV) radiation to saturate the Earth 359 million years ago, triggering a global mass extinction.

How radiation in space impacts the human body is one of the key questions facing scientists planning for future missions to the Moon and beyond, and NASA now has a powerful new tool to study the phenomenon here on Earth.