But even ionizing radiation – the kind that's capable of causing cellular damage – is everywhere, from the soil to the foods we consume. Human beings are exposed to radiation everywhere in our environment: Heat up leftovers in the microwave or turn on a lightbulb, and you're getting a dose of non-ionizing radiation. And low-level exposure can damage our DNA, potentially creating harmful mutations down the road. When you eject electrons from atoms you can break chemical bonds, and that's what leads to the microscopic and macroscopic damage that radiation causes.” By breaking those chemical bonds inside our bodies, ionizing radiation can destroy or damage critical components of our cells, leading to injury, and at high enough doses, death. Non-ionizing radiation doesn't have that capability, and that's an important distinction. “When people say radiation, what they usually mean is ionizing radiation, which has sufficient energy to eject electrons from atoms. Links, a medical physicist and professor at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. “The word radiation is a lot broader than people realize,” says Johnathan M. But radiation – a term that refers to the transmission of energy through waves and particles – is not always a destructive force. (Credit: Argonne National Laboratory) When we hear the word “radiation,” we tend to think of atomic bombs (like the ones that fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki), or environmental mishaps like the three-eyed fish living outside Springfield's nuclear power plant on The Simpsons.
Cherenkov radiation glowing in the core of the Advanced Test Reactor at Idaho National Laboratory.
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