Detecting Fallout
Rutherford and Geiger with their apparatus for counting alpha particles. Photo by SSPL/Getty Images
Have you ever seen a movie or documentary about nuclear fallout? There are even video games that focus on the very real, very possible, and very scary possibility of things becoming radioactive. Maybe you heard about the fallout in Chernobyl. Chances are you have seen pictures of scientist walking around with an odd sensor pointing it at different things after nuclear tests. This sensor is called the “Geiger Counter,” (invented by Hans Geiger.) It can detect an atomic nucleus in thin air, and gives scientists an idea of how much radiation there is in vicinities of nuclear blasts. Without it, humankind would be in big trouble after a nuclear fallout.