The hottest DNA repair Substack posts right now

Allowing proportional DNA repair doesn't save the Linear No‑Threshold (LNT) model, because if cancer mainly arises from closely spaced double‑strand breaks, risk does not track total dose alone and can grow faster than linearly.
If repair takes time, higher dose rates increase the inventory of unrepaired double‑strand breaks and the probability of two breaks clustering rises roughly with the square (or higher power) of dose rate, producing a nonlinear (steeper) risk response.
Biologically, single‑strand breaks are fixed with very high fidelity, but double‑strand breaks can be misrepaired by joining wrong ends; those misrepairs (especially paired or closely spaced DSBs) are the likely mechanism for radiation‑induced cancer, so dose rate and break clustering matter.

Humanity has faced many challenges, but we've been lucky to discover amazing solutions like fossil fuels and nuclear energy that have helped us thrive. These discoveries have led to huge improvements in our quality of life.
Nuclear energy is powerful and produces less pollution, but it comes with risks like radiation exposure. Thankfully, we also have a natural DNA repair system that helps protect us from some of this damage.
As we move forward, it's important for us to embrace nuclear power responsibly while being aware of its challenges. If we hadn't recognized its potential, we could have faced serious problems in our civilization.

Scientific hypotheses can be disproven by solid counter-examples.
The Linear No Threshold (LNT) hypothesis of radiation harm is not as simple as it seems.
LNT failed to predict the actual outcome of bone cancer in the dial painters, revealing flaws in the theory.

The recommended radiation exposure limit for the general public was 2 mSv/day until 1951, when it was changed to 3 mSv/week.
A dose of 2 mSv/day is considered safe as it is based on biological repair mechanisms that can handle DNA damage from radiation and natural processes.
Maintaining a limit of 2 mSv/day could prevent unnecessary evacuations and help make nuclear power a more economical and environmentally friendly energy source.

Our DNA repair systems protect us from damage caused by oxygen based metabolism and radiation.
Oxygen based metabolism likely evolved with a pre-existing DNA repair system.
Cyanobacteria, with well-developed ROS repair systems, influenced our ability to handle radiation damage.

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