Here's what I think happened
A
radiation burn is damage to the
skin or other
biological tissue caused by exposure to radiation. The radiation types of greatest concern are
thermal radiation, radio frequency energy,
ultraviolet light and
ionizing radiation.
The most common type of radiation
burn is a
sunburn caused by
UV radiation. High exposure to
X-rays during diagnostic
medical imaging or
radiotherapy can also result in radiation burns. As the ionizing radiation interacts with
cells within the body—damaging them—the body responds to this damage, typically resulting in
erythema—that is, redness around the damaged area. Radiation burns are often associated with
radiation-induced cancer due to the ability of ionizing radiation to interact with and damage
DNA, occasionally inducing a cell to become cancerous.
Cavity magnetrons can be improperly used to create surface and internal burning. Depending on the
photon energy,
gamma radiation can cause very deep
gamma burns, with
60Co internal burns are common.
Beta burns tend to be shallow as
beta particles are not able to penetrate deep into the person; these burns can be similar to sunburn.
Space Weather: Sunspots, Solar Flares & Coronal Mass Ejections
Nola Taylor Redd, Space.com Contributor | May 13, 2013 01:10pm ET
Though the
sun lies 93 million miles (149 million km) from Earth, its unceasing activity assures an impact on our planet far beyond the obvious light and heat. From a constant stream of particles in the form of
solar wind to the unpredictable bombardment from
solar flares and
coronal mass ejections, Earth often feels the effects of its stellar companions. Less noticeable are the
sunspots crossing the solar surface, though they are related to the more violent interactions. All of these fall under the definition of "
space weather."
Watch a very large solar flare:
Radiation burns can also occur with high power
radio transmitters at any frequency where the body absorbs radio frequency energy and converts it to heat.
[1] The U.S.
Federal Communications Commission (FCC) considers 50 watts to be the lowest power above which radio stations must evaluate emission safety. Frequencies considered especially dangerous occur where the human body can become
resonant, at 35 MHz, 70 MHz, 80-100 MHz, 400 MHz, and 1 GHz.
[2] Exposure to
microwaves of too high intensity can cause
microwave burns.
Why is the light blue in water?
Water is intrinsically blue because of its selective absorption of the red end of the spectrum. One explanation of the Cerenkov effect in water is that the atoms in the water become excited by the Cerenkov shock wave and then de-excite, emitting blue light.
Another possible explanation is that the number of photons emitted by such a charged particle is inversely proportional to wavelength. This would mean that more photons are emitted with shorter wavelengths, thereby moving the spectrum to the blue side.