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Cosmic rays will melt your brain
by John Hewitt
extremetech
A few years ago, researchers from the University of California asked a question that doctors and their patients with brain tumors couldn’t ignore any longer: What really happens to your brain when you blast it with radiation? They found that its once-bushy neurons looked like your curbside hedges after the township tree surgeons got through them — they were emasculated of their branches and leaves.
Vipan Parihar and Charles L. Limoli are the radiation oncologists behind that study. Last week, they made another important breakthrough, this time in the nationwide effort to select the best candidates for a one-way trip to Mars. It seems that as long as shielding against cosmic rays is still too difficult, and the trip remains slow enough, than patients with brain cancer end up with a win-win: If the radiation is not hot enough, then no biggie — a one-way trip for someone who already, regrettably, has a one-way sentence. If the radiation is just hot enough to zap their tumors, but spare the brain at large, then great, they are cured for the remainder of the trip. And if the radiation is too hot, and melts both tumor and brain, then at least their consciousness will be numbed to the full horror of its dissolution by tiny degree. [John, I'm a little concerned with your definition of win-win here. -Ed]
Every Day is Earth Day
Source: http://www.riseearth.com/2015/05/cosmic-rays-will-melt-your-brain.html
