Forum: Author Hangout

Are pale-coloured eyes also more prone to radiation damage

No, they are only more prone to UV radiation damage.

Also a fall event won't make all water radioactive, especially not spring water.

Still you could assume that post fall the environment could be lethally radioactive.

You could try an ozone depletion event which would add a evolutionary pressure against pale skin. But we have removed ourselves from that kind of environmental pressure long ago...

Your best bet would be that no bioengineered humans with gene added for radiation resistance had blue eye.

If you want to go really wild, you could tell that the gamma ray photosynthetic pigment added to the human genome prevent blue eyes.
https://doi.org/10.1002%2Fscin.2007.5591712106

Anything else linked to a fall event removing blue eye genes will be rather convoluted and not linked to radiation such as
- Lethal autonomous weapon.
- Bio weapon targeting.

following a 'Fall' event

Is a 'Fall' event the same as an event that produces fallout? I'm guessing, in context, it does not mean autumn, but maybe I'm wrong. What does it mean?

Some things to consider.

Ionizing radiation comes in two main flavors. One particulate and the other EMF. Contamination is ionizing particles where they are not desired. Some stronger particles put out some EMF as well.

Alpha - particle

Beta - particle

X-ray - EMF

Gamma - EMF

Neutron - particle

Alpha and beta particles can damage external body parts, and if internalized by various means, they can damage internal organs.

A Neutron particle is a different beast. It's the highest energy level typically involved. Of the five mentioned, it's the only one that can make something radioactive that wasn't previously so. Internalizing alpha and beta particles can destroy cells in the body, but they cannot make them radioactive themselves.

Gamma and X-ray typically are only differentiated by their source and most times their energy level. X-rays are usually weaker and for people, generated by a machine. Gamma comes from one or another isotope or nuclear process (see photosynthesis, compton scattering, pair production, and fusion).

UV, while in the electromagnetic spectrum like gamma, is not considered an ionizing radiation as it does not have the energy to affect any subatomic particle (electron for instance). Yet it does have the energy to affect various chemical compounds, deoxyribonucleic acid for instance (DNA). The difference between damage done by ionizing radiation verses none ionizing radiation is one works on a subatomic scale, and the other on an exothermic/atomic scale. Both damage DNA by different means.

The matter that comprises the eye can be damaged by any of the above.

However, light colored eyes have less pigmentation in them. That makes them more susceptible to UV damage in general.

Based on your description, the blue eyes would have been a retro mutation. Conflating the damage vectors can cause confusion.

Given that blue eyes (or pretty much any colour apart from brown) are caused by recessive genes in both parents, radioactive water would have zero effect on the likelihood of their elimination from mankind, as the radiation would affect everybody, not just those with blue (or pale) eyes.

More likely cause would be the fall event having an outcome (an increase in sunlight getting through to the Earth's surface through ozone depletion or something similar perhaps) that caused blindness in pale eyed people, thus making this gene variant a non-viable one, even so this would take many generations to occur, if it was possible at all.

You would also have to consider that it could make the "white-man" virtually extinct as this is where most of this recessive gene-pool lies, so a world populated by mostly Asian, African, Arabic and Indian/Pakistani ethnic groups would be more likely.

ztd