A Drug that Turns Radioactive Elements into Harmless Chemicals

After the atomic might plant accident at Fukushima , scientists around the earth went into high gear , trying to figure out how we could respond next fourth dimension . And for pill roller at Berkeley Lab , that mean trying to uprise a pill that multitude could take to knock off radioactive elements in the environment .

As chemist Rebecca Abergel explains in this video , there are two family of elements that you might unintentionally thread up ingesting with food or water , calledactinidesandlanthinides . And right now , Berkeley Lab is make for on coming up with a pill you could take to combat their ill effects . The contraceptive pill will be made from particle that can bind with the radioactive factor , neutralizing htem . Once the pill has done its work , those element would become chemical complexes that would leave your body harmlessly in urine or faeces . Basically , you ’d just flush the radioactive elements out of your body like anything else you ’ve eaten .

In any kind of calamity where radioactive elements have get into the environment , these pill could save many lives .