Why and how does radiation cause mutations?

Question

Also, to what extent can something be mutated? i.e. it is obvious that it is far fetched for a person to get super powers from radiation exposure as shown on t.v., but can radiation exposure cause physical mutation where a person, or at least bacteria, can change it's physical form... even slightly?

Answer 1

It can alter the genes of living cells. Often leading to cancer which can, as you say, change it's physical form as cells continue to replicate themselves or are destroyed.

Answer 2

The radiation adds energy to bases in nucleic acids, making the less common structures (by keto/enol, or enamine/imine tautomery), thus making them couple with not correct bases.

In fact such a mutation can be beneficial - the agronomists in my country (central Europe) tried inserting rye to our first nuclear reactor :) making sometimes new hybrids with beneficial properties...

good old socialism :)

Answer 3

Alters the cells

Answer 4

This website explains a lot about mutations: http://ttb.eng.wayne.edu/~cavanau/ch12le...

Answer 5

interesting question! i hope it's not for school though because i'm not sure i'll be able to cover it all--i don't know much about radiation--except, didn't Marie Curie die from it? anyway, from last year's bio class, mutations happen in genes, when a base is deleted, replaced, repeated, or whatever. radiation causes the base to change with UV rays, gamma rays, and x-rays. the UV radiation binds 2 thymine bases together and interrupts the DNA's reproduction. also, the dose of radiation affects the intensity of the mutation.

i hope this answered your question, but i put some sources on the bottom anyway. try the 3rd one, i didn't read all of it but it might help. also, it has a table 15-5, if you click on it it shows the most dangerous forms of radiation mutations.

Answer 6

Photons, or gamma rays, rip through the dna, and can cause damage to the molecules that make it up. Obviously, under these circumstances, a positive mutation would be extremely unlikely. But then, positive mutations really ARE statistically improbable, which is the basic problem with evolution as we currently understand it.

Answer 7

basically, it alters the DNA of the cells, causing them to either die (like in chemotherapy) or divide and grow uncontrollably (ie cancer) or ofcourse many varyations in between.

it is possible that the radiation could cause a beneficial mutation, such as those shown when bacteria become immune to inhibitors, but as previously stated, its VERY unlikely

Answer 8

Ionizing radiations and that too exposure to the developing foetus (with a lot of dividing cells) can cause permanent and long lasting damage. With adult human beings the utmost they do is kill cells as in cancerous tissue, lymph, bone marrow, gonads or even skin. Changing of physical form can utmost be a minor one like skin getting puckered or blackened as in a burn and so on but not to the point of cosmetic surgery depths.......I hope I am right.