A Dash of Cosmic Radiation

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A Dash of Cosmic Radiation

Earth’s atmosphere offers us more than breathable air: it’s humanity’s security blanket, filtering a steady barrage of cosmic radiation from space. 

These cosmic “rays” are actually atomic nuclei, and they rain in from supernovae and distant galaxies at speeds of up to 667,934,162 mph (99.6% the speed of light)! 

If the atmosphere offers us ground-dwellers protection from all these space particles, are high-elevation dwellers subjected to more potent cosmic radiation? 

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Keep Calm and Accelerate Erythropoiesis

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Keep Calm and Accelerate Erythropoiesis

Yesterday we saw that the air up in Albuquerque is about 15% less dense than a mile lower at sea level. It follows that every inhalation here contains 15% less substance: no matter how deeply you breathe, your blood just can’t pull quite as much precious oxygen from your lungs.

So how does your body adapt when you move from sea level to high altitude?

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Into Thin Air

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Into Thin Air

At an average of 5,300 feet above sea level—5,352 at the Sunport, as the ABQ airport is adorably named—Albuquerque is officially a mile-high city. That means the atmosphere is pretty thin around here.

After all, it’s common knowledge that the higher you go, the thinner it gets: skiers get light-headed around Boulder (10,000 feet), climbers wear oxygen tanks up Mount Everest (29,000 feet), and airplane cabins are pressurized to keep us conscious (36,000 feet).

But can you explain why? Why isn’t the planet wrapped in a blanket of evenly-dense air from the ground to the edge of space?

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