Word: gamma
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Every human being is constantly subjected to bombardment by gamma rays (X rays) from natural sources such as cosmic rays. These do no visible damage, for the body is accustomed to the low normal "level of radiation." But when a gamma ray hits the nucleus of a spermatozoon or ovum (the reproductive cells which unite to form a new individual), it may damage one of the thousands of "genes" which carry hereditary characteristics from one generation to the next. This may produce a "mutation." The child may differ slightly or radically from its parents, or the difference may lie concealed...
More Redheads? When the Atomic Age really gets rolling, with atomic power plants producing much of the world's energy, the "level of radiation" will rise. People living near the plants will get more gamma rays through their gonads. So will people farther away, affected by radioactive by-products from the plants' exhausts. Possible result: more redheaded children will be born in black-haired families, and more mutations will lurk in the germ plasm to scandalize future neighbors...
Every Soviet agency from the Red Army to the MGB (secret police) has its own teams everywhere. The MGB usually gets the cream of the crop without resorting to athletic scholarships; it is hard to turn down a bid from old Mu Gamma Beta. Actually, the state itself takes wonderful care of boys & girls who look like champs. Shotputter Tatiana Sevryukovo got $1,600 for a record heave. Last winter every member of the Dynamo jutbol team that toured England got a $4,000 bonus on their triumphal return. The ultimate goal of all: the rank of "Master of Sport...
Stealthy Neutrons. Most dangerous of all are the neutrons, which can wander almost at will through most kinds of matter. When they hit an atom's nucleus, they produce a dangerous gamma ray and lose a little of their speed. Eventually they are "captured," but the nucleus which captures them is apt to be unstable. Sooner or later it may disintegrate with another burst of rays, alpha, beta or gamma. Some elements, riddled with neutrons, quiet down in minutes or hours. Others radiate thousands of years...
These radiations are not peculiar to atomic bombs. They are also produced by the controlled chain reaction in a uranium pile or atomic power plant. The reaction itself generates powerful gamma rays and floods of neutrons. The uranium disintegrates, leaving a residue of highly active fission products. The neutrons, wandering through the pile, the cooling system and the concrete shield, stir up radioactivity. The pile may become "poisoned," and everything from it, or in contact with it, must be shunned like death...