• Question: What is the most harmful partical to us?

    Asked by anon-244324 to Ondrej, Jordan, Eleanor, Ed on 19 Mar 2020.
    • Photo: Jordan McElwee

      Jordan McElwee answered on 19 Mar 2020:

      Interesting question that took me a little while to think about! While most particles I think could be damaging if you were exposed in a high enough concentration, the most harmful naturally occurring particle would be some form of radiation.
      There are 3 types of radioactive particle – alpha, beta and gamma. Gamma is kind of known as the most harmful to humans, but it’s technically an electromagnetic wave.. so I’m discounting that.
      The reason these types of radiation are harmful is because they can ionise an atom (remove or excite it’s electrons) and this can disrupt your cells. In the worst case it will damage DNA, which is very bad!
      Onto the most harmful? Technically, an alpha will do the most damage, however they will barely be able to make it through your skin so can’t do too much damage (unless you eat a source of them!). So I think that would make beta particles (which are just electrons really), the most damaging as they can get into your body.
      However, this isn’t all bad! Beta particles are also used in radiation therapies to treat cancer, as the same reason that they are harmful will cause them to destroy the cancer cells. So not all bad!

    • Photo: Eleanor Jones

      Eleanor Jones answered on 19 Mar 2020:

      I think I would agree with Jordan. If you’re thinking about individual particles and thinking about direct danger to humans, it would presumably be a beta particle since it is radiation. But, if you consider different situations, a neutron can be quite a dangerous particle in nuclear reactors for example. So I don’t think the particles themselves are dangerous, more the environment and the state in which you find them?

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