Thursday, January 08, 2004

THE POLITICS OF SCIENCE

A reader writes:

"Delighted to read the article on hormesis. Interestingly, it was a health physicist called Luckey who first revived this hormesis thesis over twenty years ago -- but somehow he got the silent treatment, just like Paracelsus. The radiation protection brigade are hardly going to expand their remit if they admit that a small dose of gamma rays is the best thing since sliced pan.

Here's a radiation hormesis site you might be interested in. See also here and here. The final paragraph of this essay says it all:

"In August 1985, a Conference on Radiation Hormesis in Oakland, California, recognized the reversal in concepts of radiation effects. Its Proceedings, published in the Health Physics journal in 1987, finally recognized that low dose radiation is not only good for you, it is essential to life. But how will Health Physicists now earn a living? ""

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