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Comparative Radiosensitivity of Animal Organisms and Copper Contents

Abstract

THE doses of ionizing radiation which kill animal organisms vary by a factor of roughly a thousand1. No explanation of this fact has hitherto been offered. However, as implied by a recent hypothesis2, there indeed exists a curious and suggestive correlation between radiosensitivity expressed as the LD50/30-radiation dose killing 50 per cent of an animal population within 30 days and the copper content of the animal. The radiosensitivity can be estimated semi-quantitatively on both a relative and absolute basis.

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SCHUBERT, J. Comparative Radiosensitivity of Animal Organisms and Copper Contents. Nature 200, 375–376 (1963). https://doi.org/10.1038/200375a0

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