Radiation, radioactivity and your local environment

自核物理领域诞生以来，辐射和放射性一直是核物理的中心之谜。它是令人惊叹的发现和创造力的飞跃揭开了自然界隐藏的秘密的科学领域之一，也是应用它可以(和已经)造成许多好处和许多危害的科学领域之一。与应用核物理相关的风险很小，但实现这种风险的后果可能是巨大的。这一点在两年前福岛第一核电站事故的余波中再次体现出来，尽管距离遥远，时间流逝，但它仍有可能成为英国的头条新闻。不久前，英国仍能感受到切尔诺贝利事故的后果。但与确保未来能源供应的迫切需要相联系，英国正在积极讨论新建核电。因此，重要的是，普通民众能够对与辐射相关的好处、风险和坏处做出明智的判断，并正确看待辐射水平。大学和学者被视为就有争议的问题提供独立专家信息的来源，因此最适合向普通民众提供信息和解释。我们希望提高人们对自然和人为放射源和辐射源的认识，重点关注人们花费时间的辐射环境。我们将：-尽可能广泛地吸引受众，从学校开始，通过我们现有的联系很容易进入，然后扩展到科学节、科学中心和更广泛的公众；-提供流动基础核物理实验，证明放射性衰变、同位素识别、辐射衰减和天然放射源。这些实验将有可能只需向观众提供最少的指导；-通过从智能手机操作的简单盖革计数器提供数据收集工具，在免费网站上显示苏格兰人民的辐射地图；因此，我们将与广泛的受众互动，使他们拥有研究方法和数据收集的所有权，从而不仅展示核物理，而且在更广泛的意义上展示科学方法。该项目的总体目标和总体影响可概括为三个主要主题；-通过使用影响当地人民生活的简单但相关的测量提高对科学方法的认识；-教育感兴趣的公众关于核物理和放射性的基本原理以及辐射与物质的相互作用；-通过收集对位置敏感的伽马剂量率并将其纳入在线地图，提供“公民科学”的范例。

Radiation and radioactivity are a mystery at the centre of nuclear physics ever since the creation of this field of physics. It is one of the fields of science where breathtaking discoveries and leaps of creativity unlocked the hidden secrets of nature, but also one of the fields of science where its application can (and has) caused much good and much harm. The risk associated with applied nuclear physics is small, the consequences of the realisation of this risk can be immense. This has been shown again two years ago in the aftermath of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear accident, which despite its geographical distance and the time passed still has the potential to make headlines in the UK. And the consequences of the Chernobyl accident were still felt in the UK not too long ago. But linked with the pressing need to secure our future energy supplies, nuclear new built is actively discussed in the UK.It is therefore important that the general population can make an educated judgement on the advantages, risks and disadvantages associated with radiation and put radiation levels into perspective. Universities and academics are seen as sources of independent expert information on controversial issues and are thus best placed to provide information and interpretation to the general population. We want to raise the awareness on natural and man-made sources of radioactivity and radiation, focussing on the radiation environment where people spend their time. We will:- engage with as wide an audience as possible, starting from schools as they are easily accessible through our existing links, and then extending to science festivals, science centres and the wider public;- provide mobile fundamental nuclear physics experiments which demonstrate radioactive decay, isotope identification, attenuation of radiation and natural radioactive sources. These experiments will be possible with minimal instruction to the audience;- provide a data collection tool through simple Geiger counters operated from smartphones, displaying a people's radiation map of Scotland on a free web site;We will thus interact with a wide range of audiences, giving them ownership of the research methods and data collection, thus demonstrating not only nuclear physics, but in a broader sense the scientific method. The overarching aims and overall impact of the project can be summarised in three main topics;- raise awareness for the scientific method by using a simple but relevant measurement impacting on people's local life;- educate the interested public on the fundamentals of nuclear physics and radioactivity as well as the interaction of radiation with matter;- provide an example of "citizen science" by collecting position sensitive gamma dose rates and integrate them into an online map.