And the Hello,

and this week we've got how astronauts on the way to Mars might be affected by radiation how we can watch chemical reactions taking place with the new

microscope technology and we try to shed some light on a new generation of LEDs.

If you'd like to get in touch with us here at the naked scientist then email Chris at the naked scientist.

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And joining Dave and me to take a look at the science news headlines this week is science writer Mark Peplo.

Dave, you're at first though with a look at Mars astronauts and how much radiation they might

be exposed to on their way to the Red Planet?

That's right. So throughout science fiction,

traveling to other planets comes up again and again.

And last month, 80,000 people have applied

to be part of a one-way trip to Mars, which is of course the most habitable of our

near neighbors even if it's not very habitable. Now a mission would obviously be exceeding

expensive, but even if you could get past that hurdle would the crew actually

survive the experience. Well why wouldn't they survive the experience first of?

Well the problem is that space is continuously bombarded by high energy particles

and some of these are coming from

deep space from other parts of the galaxy, but most of it's actually due to the

sun's atmosphere being continuously blown off in what we call the solar wind. This is mostly high energy protons and some other

heavier ions which bash into your body and damage you like any other form of

...