Our last blog post about Chernobyl generated a lot of interest
among our friends, but seemed to raise more questions than it
answered. Many people asked for more basic information about
radiation and more comparisons between Chernobyl and Japan, and
safe levels versus dangerous levels. In light of that, we have
compiled this follow-up post. First Things First – What is
Radiation (in plain English)? In our last post, we showed lots
of pictures of this little yellow Geiger counter that we used to
measure radiation. So what is this thing measuring? Basically,
it’s measuring both particles and waves in the air around it.
Some radiation is transported via particles that can easily be
blocked by a piece of paper, or a jacket. Other types of
radiation exist as waves, that can move straight through a wall.
This devise is measuring both, (two types of particles and one
wave) and it’s adding them up to give us a total level of
radiation. The level of radiation is expressed as an amount of
radiation (in a unit called Si