Radiation Explainer: What it Does, Why We’re Scared

Since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the world has associated radiation with fear and horrible repercussions. That fear seemed somewhat justified during the cold war, and then after the Chernobyl disaster and Three Mile Island. But it’s easy to forget that we’re surrounded by radiation every day; that it occurs naturally. Or that we undergo medical treatments to fight diseases like cancer with radiation. Is radiation as scary as we think? Oxford professor Wade Allison says we tend to overreact in our screeching fears of radiation. And also except for in really high doses radiation has its benefits.