Society News Archive

Are you a believer in the "banana dose" concept? A Health Physics Society member has recommended an 11-minute-long YouTube video that uses bananas and travel to put radiation exposures in perspective.

The video was posted by a videographer with Veritasium who is filming a television documentary about how radiation has impacted our lives, what is perceived as very "radioactive," and what is dangerous. Veritasium is a science video blog featuring experiments, expert interviews, demonstrations, and discussions with the public about everything science related.

The filming took the videographer to the "most radioactive places" on Earth, including Hiroshima, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, as he presents postapocalyptic landscapes. He also visited nuclear power plants, research reactors, Marie Curie's institute, Einstein's apartment, nuclear medicine areas of hospitals, uranium mines, and even the Trinity bomb site.

As you might expect, there are several errors in the script that most health physicists will immediately recognize. The documentary will be ready for television broadcast in late 2015, so you may want to leave the videographer suggestions for improvements. Overall, however, it is this editor's opinion that it presents a commendable video for public consumption.

Check it out: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRL7o2kPqw0&feature=em-uploademail

By Web Operations Editor in Chief Howard Dickson