07.12.2023 / 14:00 – 17:15
Pöllau Castle
Teacher training in cooperation with the Pedagogical University of Styria.
The word radiation is usually associated with negative connotations: Radiation exposure, radiation sickness and triggering cancer. It is also scary that radiation is usually not felt, smelled or seen. In medicine, however, it plays an important role for diagnostic and healing purposes: X-ray tomography, PET scanners, gamma knife. In addition to "hard" (particle) radiation, UV, infrared and radio radiation (in that order) are increasingly harmless, even vital (such as sunlight for photosynthesis and heat radiation). The greenhouse climate is also a radiation-driven effect. And we are often not aware that we ourselves emit radiation, which is used in night-vision devices and triggers the widespread motion detectors. An experiment will be demonstrated on infrared radiation and its varying ability to penetrate optically opaque materials. Other issues of radiation protection will be addressed: permissible radiation exposure on transatlantic flights, radioactive waste, and mobile phone radiation..