Wasn’t it Einstein who said there was more empty space in an atom than in the solar system?
Proportionately, there is more empty space between an atom’s nucleus and its first electron than between the Sun and Pluto!
When you figure out how to scroll this page at Phrenopolis, you’ll see an atom from the inside.
You’ll get an elementary sense of the space inside an atom.
The author says,
“I used to think that things like rocks and buildings and my own skeleton were fairly solid.
But they’re made up of atoms, and atoms, as you can see here, contain so little actual material that they can barely be said to exist.
We are all phantoms.“
Most cosmic particles as well as radiation from the earth travel right through us. But some can strike molecules in our body. In the early 70s I spent much of a year crafting trim and furnishings at the home of Dr. John Gofman, a pioneer at Lawrence Berkeley Labs, a pioneer on the health effects of radiation, a co-discoverer of uranium-233, and an articulate and effective critic of the safety aspects of the U.S. atomic energy programs. Dr. Gofman traveled the world with this warning,
“Most particles go right through our body. But we truly need to worry about the occasional ‘bowling ball’ that can wreak havoc as it collides with one of the molecules in our body.”
See this post on how easy it is for the sun’s rays to damage our DNA.
Update:
Dr. Gofman passed away in August 2007 at the age of 88. The LATimes reports,
Often called the father of the antinuclear movement, Gofman and his colleague at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Arthur R. Tamplin, developed data in 1969 showing that the risk from low doses of radiation was 20 times higher than stated by the government.
A new post is here.