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[Yanlin]

@ yanlin: do you read?
Inhaling dust is bad (micro particles),
inhaling smoke is worse (mp+CO),
cigarette smoke is even worse (mp+CO+bioactive, irritating molecules), but it is still not radioactive.
Other things than radiation can cause cancer you know.

As for bombs: IF you survive the explosion, and remain in the affected area, you ARE going to die from radiation poisoning. Not cancer probably, unless the dosage is low enough for you to live long enough to develop it. Cancer requires a collection of specific mutations, acute radiation just causes the cells to PCD (selfdestruct!).

Yeah, because only radiation causes cancer. We all know that. [/sarcasm]

[Leafsnail]

@ yanlin: do you read?
Inhaling dust is bad (micro particles),
inhaling smoke is worse (mp+CO),
cigarette smoke is even worse (mp+CO+bioactive, irritating molecules), but it is still not radioactive.
Other things than radiation can cause cancer you know.

As for bombs: IF you survive the explosion, and remain in the affected area, you ARE going to die from radiation poisoning. Not cancer probably, unless the dosage is low enough for you to live long enough to develop it. Cancer requires a collection of specific mutations, acute radiation just causes the cells to PCD (selfdestruct!).

Yeah, because only radiation causes cancer. We all know that. [/sarcasm]

Well, it may all ultimately come down to radiation, if other things cause radioactive free radicals to build up.  Random mutations also cause cancer sometimes though, and occasionally viruses can start/ aggravate it.

[Virex]

@ yanlin: do you read?
Inhaling dust is bad (micro particles),
inhaling smoke is worse (mp+CO),
cigarette smoke is even worse (mp+CO+bioactive, irritating molecules), but it is still not radioactive.
Other things than radiation can cause cancer you know.

As for bombs: IF you survive the explosion, and remain in the affected area, you ARE going to die from radiation poisoning. Not cancer probably, unless the dosage is low enough for you to live long enough to develop it. Cancer requires a collection of specific mutations, acute radiation just causes the cells to PCD (selfdestruct!).

Yeah, because only radiation causes cancer. We all know that. [/sarcasm]

Well, it may all ultimately come down to radiation, if other things cause radioactive free radicals to build up.  Random mutations also cause cancer sometimes though, and occasionally viruses can start/ aggravate it.

Seems like you´ve got the order thoroughly messed up.
First of all, free radicals don´t have to be radioactive. That´s even quite unlikely, since the most abuntant radioactive element in your body is probably Radon or C-14, neither of which is all that easy to make into a radical. Radicals are normaly things like oxygen or nitrogen and perhaps a bit of sulphur and phosphor.

Secondly, all kinds of cancer boil down to a string of mutations that disable the apoptose genes (that are the "suicide genes" that cause a cell to kill itself if something goes wrong) and also activate replicatory genes. These defects can be indiced through radiation, but also through chemical damage (mainly caused by free oxygen radicals, with a minor component of non-radical mutagens like toluene, which is actualy present in cigaret smoke if I'm not mistaken) and also through ultraviolet radiation, heat and natural DNA degradation (though the last two make only a very minor contribution and are normaly neglegible).

Now normaly the DNA is constantly repaired, but only if the damage is severe enough (or actualy both strands of the DNA have to be messed up) do real mutations occure. This means that a low dose of radiation or chemicals is usualy no problem. Problems start after a long exposure (sunburn causing skin cancer, or smoking causing lung cancer) or a high enough dose (a mild dose of radiation causing leukemia for example, which is what happened to Marry Curie, who kept a bit of radium with her at al time)

[Leafsnail]

I'm not denying that heat can't cause cancer, but I thought that sunburn had a chance of causing cancer due to the UV rays.

A very interesting and informative post nonetheless though.

[Virex]

I'm not denying that heat can't cause cancer, but I thought that sunburn had a chance of causing cancer due to the UV rays.

A very interesting and informative post nonetheless though.

Actualy heat is a very minor factor causing natural DNA decay, but it's by far not sufficient to cause any trouble. You were right that UV radiation causes skin cancer. Maybe I should've made that clearer.

Basicly, by the time DNA decay by heat becomes a problem, you already have a much bigger problem with overheating, especialy since your body is normaly kept at a relatively constant temperature

[Leafsnail]

That's probably true.  It might be a problem for those vent dwelling bacteria though... hmm...

[Virex]

Bacteria like that usualy have a very rapid and accurate DNA repair system. After all, there are bacteria that live in nuclear waste and they need to stay fit. Though an accelerated mutation rate could of course help for finding ways to survive in such areas

[Sowelu]

Huge congrats, Labs!


As for the causes...well, anything that screws with molecules can potentially cause cancer I believe.  Antioxidants are supposed to be good because they react with things that might otherwise be reacting with your body.  UV is bad because it can strike (relatively) deep, and muck things up.  Etc.

Lifespan has an interesting relation to cancer.  See, your cells have many systems in place that keep them from multiplying out of control.  Lots of systems.  Those systems all have to fail at once due to cell damage--and when they do, hey cancer.  One of those really great systems, is that most cells have a timer!  They can only divide a certain number of times.  That keeps cancer from being quite as bad, and it makes it survivable with treatment.  Of course, multiplying out of control can still be really bad even if there's not many multiplications yet, but it's limited--and it gives less chance for the already-cancerous cells to get even more broken.  Of course when your cell timer runs out, you die of old age.  So all humans are in this elaborate balance between "do I want to live longer, assuming I stay healthy?  Or do I want cancer to do less damage?"

Bizarrely, our ability to suffer cancer is what allows us to live longer.  If we all died of old age at age forty, cancer wouldn't be as big of a problem even for people who did get cancer at all!

[Virex]

As far as I know cells don't quite have a limited life span as much as a limited on the amount of times they can multiply, though it is of course possible that they have a timed trigger. However, some cells can reset the amount of times they can multiply. Especialy skin cells are capable of that, which makes them extra susceptible to cancer. On the other hand, skin cancer's usualy pretty easy to cure.

[Andir]

It would be hard to prove that Cancer wasn't caused by radiation.  There's no place I can think of on Earth that doesn't get exposure.  Light is radiation and even some deep core rocks radiate...  Take a flashlight and you have a personal radiation device.  (yeah, I know... small quantities, etc.)

[Virex]

Oh thatīs simple. Background radiationīs roughly equall for everyone not working with radioactive substances. So if cancer is much more comon in one group then in another group itīs probably not due to radiation, because both groups have been exposed to roughly the same amount of radiation. So there has to be another explanation. Statistics means a lot in science

[Nilocy]

Heh, i always will remember a video in Biology about how radiation causes cancerous growths. You had a net(the skin), bowling pins (yer DNA) and a bowling ball (the radioactive particles). The net had holes in it of a certain size to represent the gaps in your skin between molecules and stuff. Anyhoo these radioactive particles or the bowling ball was rolled towards the net, sometimes it hit the net and sometimes it got through, the tiny radioactive particles generally didn't do too much damage, knocking a pin over if they were lucky. But the big bowling ball, such as uranium, wrecked aboslute havok on the pins knocking them this way and that.

My understanding is that cancer is bad. Thats all I have to say.

[Areyar]

Sadly that graphic representation was somewhat misleading:
Radiation does not consist of radioactive elements themselves.
(as one source of radiation) Radioactive decay of these elements is the splitting off of a high energy particle causing the molecule to drop down the elemental chart a few spaces or just losing a neutron, generally the element becomes more stable, sometimes it will continue to decay (depending on the number of neutrons in relation to the current atomic weight).
Anyhow, radiation from atgomic decay comes in 3 forms:
alpha (energetic, possitively charged helium),
Beta (energetic electrons),
Gamma (high energy photons).
Penetration goes up in this row (size goes down, as well as lack of charge allows gamma to penetrate material without interacting much), energy goes up though.
alpha is not very dangerous, it can virtually be blocked by a piece of cardboard or several metres of air, but will severely affect your skin when exposed. Beta travels further through air and material and thus requires more shielding, this radiation will damage underlying tissues as well.
gamma radiation will travel, it has no charge and has masses of energy for a photon, several metres of lead will shield, but minimum exposure is the key. Cosmic radiation is mostly gamma and it will mostly pass through your body as if it was not there, occasionally hitting a molecule head on and causing havoc.

The alegory can be used to represent the types of radiation. a beachball for alpha, a football for beta and a medium steel bearing for gamma: imparted speed and inertia will represent potential energy of the particles while size (and inertia) will represent penetration.
(a better model would put small immovable objects in the path of the balls, causing the bigger balls to be deviated more often)


Disclaimer: this overview of radiationtypes is from memory only, small factual errors may occur.   

[Labs]

Hey, somebody gets it.

[Yanlin]

Bay 12: We teach nuclear physics better than any university.

Dwarf Fortress: We make mugs out of pitchblende.