Radioactivity muddles the alphabet of DNA

[kristopher]

2. That's an interesting take on the new data...

Last edited Wed Dec 18, 2013, 12:18 PM - Edit history (1)

The article:

""This work takes an entirely new direction on research into natural radioactivity in biology and raises important questions about genetic mutation," Professor Marks said."

and

"Professor Marks said the work was both exciting and unexpected, emerging as a spin-off from an Australian Research Council funded project on nuclear waste."

PamGreg:

"Yes; this has been hypothesized for some time."

The article is discussing the naturally occurring carbon14 in all living organisms.

PamGreg writes:

Are you going to somehow ban Carbon-14? Good luck with that; because Mother Nature makes OODLES of it all the time due to the solar radiation interacting with the atmosphere.

There's no need to continue any further.

The reason I posted this in EE rather than the Science forum was that I'm wondering if these findings are going to be relevant to recent research on the effectiveness of cell repair mechanisms; research, I should add, that the nuclear industry delights in misusing by claiming it as "proof" invalidating the Linear No Threshold approach to understanding the risks of damage from ionizing radiation.
Even though it isn't dealing with ionizing radiation, this statement from the researcher piqued my curiosity.

"We have discovered a subtle process that could easily be overlooked by the standard cell repair mechanisms in the body, potentially creating a new pathway for mutations to occur."