247 Subject Matter Experts
I want to point out that radiation, like everything, is not good or bad without a particular dosage attached. As my awesome commenters pointed out, people would be a lot less afraid of radiation if the dosages made more sense – instead of Rads, or Curies, or Sieverts – I promote the use of Banana, or the Banana Equivalent Dose.
Each day, your average radiation intake is 100 bananas. The maximum permitted leakage at a nuclear power plant is 2500 bananas. A chest CT scan supplied a boatload of 70,000 bananas. To put it all in perspective, a lethal dose is 35 MILLION bananas – but someone living ten miles away from Three Mile Island received only 700 bananas. Here is an excellent chart by XKCD.
The whole point is to realize that we aren’t experts at EVERYTHING, and THAT’S OKAY! Occasionally we should respect the scientific experts in that field, or devote the requisite years in undergraduate, graduate, field, and post-graduate work in order to refute them.
Case in point: in the great evolution debate, creationists like Ken Ham often point out a handful of scientists who support the creation myth. But if you read any of those lists closely, you will notice how few of them are evolutionary biologists, some of the creationist lists accept anyone who has graduated from college (a low bar for any scientist).
To point out how ridiculous these lists are, the National Center for Science Education put out a similiar call only for PhD scientists that support evolution, and who are also named Steve. Even though “Steves” only make up 1% of scientists, their list is vastly more impressive than any of the others. Science isn’t a popularity contest, but even if it were – pseudoscientists would lose anyway.
Are you still angry about our argument?
KATE
I'm reading one of your old articles about how to spot bad science. -Especially how speaking outside one's expertise is a red flag. Sound familiar? Tell me then, -how does a radioisotope thermoelectric generator work?
ROB
I know what isotope means.
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Banana Equivalent Dose. That’s hilarious, and makes me kinda hungry. But heres a good joke for this.
It’s science made simple, so simple a monkey can understand it.
Every monkey knows that 35 million bananas is a fatal dose.
Rob should start taking her out for a date right about now.
I’m kind of surprised that our protagonist would have that kind of reaction. He should have done some basic research (even U of G would have worked) before annoying his significant other and the mother of his child like that.
Everybody has something irrational!
Everyone’s got that sacred cow. I’ve seen some scoff at UFOs but accept bigfoot wholeheartedly.
It’s a bit like how everything is toxic in the right amount… even water.
Don’t you mean dihydrogen monoxide?
uh oh, even though it’s outside of my expertise, I do know how a radioisotope thermoelectric generator works!
Love your strip, it’s a bright spot in a world of wanton ignorance.
Thanks for this. I really like your banana analogy. As a result, I’ve converted to only eating apples. Thanks for the warning about how dangerous bananas are. And when was the last time you saw someone in a silent film slip on an apple for comedic effect? I rest my case, apples are the future of safe nuclear power.
Best to learn that using a cloud chamber after eating a banana. I had a professor who had a student stand in front of the class so we could see the paths of the radioactive decays leaving his body.
Poor guy. With the professor rambling he looked like he was about to pass out.
It reminds me of the food irradiation scare a few decades back. Even though the EPA and WHO endorsed the process, greenpeace had a pamphlet written by a “doctor” talking about the dangers of irradiated food. He was a podiatrist.
They’re already here! You’re next! The podiatrists are taking over!
Actually, if we’re counting actual bananas, the number would be far lower. It can’t take more than 5 million bananas to crush a person with weight.
There’s a (musically) documented case where 30,000 pounds of bananas were sufficient.
How big is a banana? A typical one is supposed to weigh about 120g. So 5 million weigh about 600,000kg or 600 metric tonnes. As a male African elephant weighs about 7000kg, that’s equivalent to about 85 elephants. Blue whales only weigh about 160tonnes so your still talking 4 blue whales.
So the short answer is, yes, they will probably crush you and I suspect it could take a lot less.
Well it all starts when a nulecule comes out of its nest…