F OR M A N Y years atmospheric research has been carried out using the balloon as a vehicle. Although animals, mainly humans, flew on the earlier flights, altitudes attained were not sufficient for a determination of any harmful physiological effects other than the classical ones due to lowered temperatures. Indeed, the only major effects noted o n animals sent aloft up to the past few years, w...

BACKGROUND Exposure to high dose radiation in combination with physical injuries such as burn or wound trauma can produce a more harmful set of medical complications requiring specialist interventions. Currently these interventions are unavailable as are the precise biomarkers needed to help both accurately assess and treat such conditions. In the present study, we tried to identify and explore...

Ultraviolet (UV) radiation can cause stresses or act as a photoregulatory signal depending on its wavelengths and fluence rates. Although the most harmful effects of UV on living cells are generally attributed to UV-B radiation, UV-A radiation can also affect many aspects of cellular processes. In cyanobacteria, most studies have concentrated on the damaging effect of UV and defense mechanisms ...

Human exposure to ionizing radiation (IR) disrupts normal metabolic processes in cells and organs by inducing complex biological responses that interfere with gene and protein expression. Conventional dosimetry, monitoring of prodromal symptoms, and peripheral lymphocyte counts are of limited value as organ- and tissue-specific biomarkers for personnel exposed to radiation, particularly, weeks ...

It is clear that high-dose radiation is harmful. However, despite extensive research, assessment of potential health-risks associated with exposure to low-dose radiation (at doses below or equal to 0.1 Gy) is still challenging. Recently, we reported that 0.05 Gy of 137Cs gamma rays (the existing limit for radiation-exposure in the workplace) was incapable of inducing significant in vivo genomic...

Solar radiation sustains and affects all life forms on Earth. In recent years, the increase in environmental levels of solar-UV radiation due to depletion of the stratospheric ozone layer, as a result of anthropogenic emission of destructive chemicals, has highlighted serious issues of social concern. This becomes still more dramatic in tropical and subtropical regions, where the intensity of s...

Energy needs worldwide are expected to increase for the foreseeable future, but fuel supplies are limited. Nuclear reactors could supply much of the energy demand in a safe, sustainable manner were it not for fear of potential releases of radioactivity. Such releases would likely deliver a low dose or dose rate of radiation, within the range of naturally occurring radiation, to which life is al...

The author concisely presents the results of his 30-year investigations about the harmful influence of the higher sun radiation on the eyes. The investigations were carried out among the population of the Island of Rab, situated in the northern part of the Adriatic sea. This geographical region has been characterized by higher doses of the global sun radiation compared with the remaining part o...

Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease, is extremely resistant to ionizing radiation, enduring up to 1.5 kGy of gamma rays. Ionizing radiation can damage the DNA molecule both directly, resulting in double-strand breaks, and indirectly, as a consequence of reactive oxygen species production. After a dose of 500 Gy of gamma rays, the parasite genome is fragmented, but the chrom...

The spectral distribution of the solar radiation reaching the Earth's surface depends on the irradiance emitted by the Sun, the Earth-Sun distance, and the transmission properties of the atmosphere. The changing Earth-Sun distance due to an eccentric orbit implies that the irradiance received at the top of the atmosphere varies with an annual cycle, being 6.9% above and below the yearly mean. T...