How dangerous are Gamma Rays?

How dangerous are Gamma Rays?

By: Bell Muthukumaran

Most people experience Gamma Rays at least once in their lives, and that is through x-rays, when you get an x-ray, Gamma Rays are going to be sent at your body to create an accurate picture of what's inside you. Gamma Rays are very dangerous though, so that's why the doctors usually give you a vest or something else to cover your body that is made of lead. It is made of lead because lead blocks the rays from getting to you. The Gamma Rays are dangerous because if the DNA in a nucleus of a cell is damaged, the cell has a risk to become cancerous. There are three different types of radiation I will talk about. Alpha, Beta and Gamma. If the radiation is inside the body, Alpha radiation is the most dangerous because it is easily absorbed by cells but beta and gamma radiation aren't that dangerous because they are less likely to be absorbed by cells and will most likely just get ignored. Although, if the radiation is outside of the body, beta and Gamma radiation are dangerous because they can penetrate the skin and cells but alpha radiation isn't as dangerous because it most likely that it won't reach the living cells.

 Another reason why Gamma Rays are dangerous is because they have extremely high energy photons that travel through almost anything because they have no mass. An alternative to blocking with lead is concrete, but it takes several feet of concrete to stop gamma rays. If you're exposed to a lot of radiation, it can cause radiation poisoning. People can have many different reactions to the word "radiation". For example, one person can tell you how radiation had made their day by destroying their cancer. Another person might talk about how radiation had hurt one of their family members or them. That is because radiation does many good thing s and it hurts many people.

  

Gamma Rays are produced in the disintegration of radioactive atomic nuclei and in the decay of certain subatomic particles. Gamma Rays that can cause cancer are the rays that are really strong and you would want to avoid them unless you work in that field or you need an x-ray. Another thing that I haven't talked about yet is gene mutations/skeletal mutations  due to gamma rays. The Gamma Rays can actually inflict harm upon the genes and to a point where it actually mutates them and that is not good at all because that can mean that there are many mutated cells which can eventually, mutate you. An example is one of those two-headed snakes you can find online, those are not from Gamma Rays affecting them, but that is still an example of a mutation. Now it probably won't be that severe if your cells mutate but it is still extremely harmful. Same goes for skeletal mutations, but it won't make you taller or shorter, it will hurt and weaken your bones and tissues.

This field will advance by making it so that Gamma Rays don't affect the human body as greatly, with x-rays, because even though you are wearing the lead vest, if you get many x-rays, it will slowly but surely affect your cells and your body. I also hope that radiation won't affect the body as much when it gets exposed to Gamma Rays because the mutations I talked about in the last paragraph are what can really hurt you because it can not only weaken your cells/body, it can also weaken your skeletal system and that can have many effects on you such as, mutate your body.

https://www.britannica.com/science/gamma-ray

https://science.howstuffworks.com/radiation-sickness1.htm

https://science.howstuffworks.com/radiation.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/add_aqa/atoms_radiation/nuclearradiationrev6.shtml