Catching up PART 1 – NEST

…the heck have I been? Well, dear readers… There’s been quite a gap in my posts save what I’d sent forward in time from the past. (The “jumping the timestream” posts were written and sent forward into the future by scheduling an automatic publish date years after they were written..) Why the gap? Lots and […]

System of Fear: A Dose of Radiation Reality

In line with last week’s post, please see the below infographic, which paints radiation doses in the visual context of a sort of system of planets according to size (click to enlarge): As is plainly evident, it’s shocking how much the public perception of radiation doses and negative health effects differs from reality. (For example, […]

The Antimatter Plot Thickens…

I realize it’s been egregiously silent here at the Astrowright blog for some time. Apparently, I am not immune to the same disappointing (as a reader) dry spells experienced in/by so many other blogs I’ve followed during the years. (With grad school, teaching at CSN, my day-job working for DOE, a side-business or two in flux, moonlighting the occasional and […]

Calculating your own natural radiation dose in context

A Dose of Radiation Information How much radiation is normal? In light of Fukushima, sensationalized media, political fear-stoking, and rampant misinformation regarding radioactivity, consider this post an easy-to-reference tool/resource. With it, you can be armed to understand and quickly make sense of this over-mystified, natural aspect of reality when it comes up. For starters, here’s the simple reality about […]

Summer Hits: Martian Water, Asteroid Nukes, Orbital Antimatter!

Here’s a recap of some of this summer’s greatest hits in space news that you might have missed: Water on Mars In an utterly tantalizing development, scientists analyzing imagery from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) have announced what appears for all the world to be direct evidence of water on Mars! Because the MRO has […]

Radiation, Japan, and irresponsible reporting: Part II

So, after my last post, you’ve got the subtle (and not-so-subtle) differences between radioactivity (overweight atoms), radioactive material (the material containing or composed of the overweight atoms), radiation (invisible light and particles emitted by the overweight atoms), and contamination (having radioactive material someplace you don’t want it). Hopefully, you can also see why mixing these […]

Radiation, Japan, and irresponsible reporting: Part I

While the media continues to sensationalize what is already a “gee-whiz” bewildering topic for most ordinary people on planet Earth – nuclear reactors and radioactivity – the recent run on Potassium-Iodide tablets in the United States and on the Internet betrays just how badly the outlets are throwing gasoline on the raging inferno of ignorance […]

Space radiation has Astronauts seeing stars

There are many astronauts experiences that are well understood. Everyone knows about “weightlessness,” or floating in a microgravity environment, (which is actually perpetual free-fall around the Earth, but that’s a technicality for another post.) Everyone has heard about the problem of space sickness that hits some astronauts and not others. Disruptions in our sense […]

A Radioactive Astronaut-Hopeful (Space update)

By education and trade, I’m a geologist, having worked now in the professional world for more than six years getting my boots dirty performing hydrogeology, water resources, drilling, geomorphology research, and environmental contaminant transport and remediation work in some of the most remote territory this country has to offer. However, in my push toward becoming […]

Suiting up for radiation

So, I’m heading out this week for radiological instrumentation training. And while I’m studying the latest in handheld “duck-and-cover” devices, I thought I’d take a second to talk about radiation protection. Actually, everyone is used to doing it. The dental chair. The strangely-shaped things in your mouth. The lead apron. -Or how about gooping up before […]