• Chainweasel@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    edit-2
    9 months ago

    If you have an extremely high infant mortality rate, it won’t take that long. If the radiation kills off a high enough percentage of individuals without cancer resistance it won’t take long at all.
    Theoretically you could do it in only 2-3 generations if you had environmental factors that could give 100% of individuals without resistance cancer.

    • bluGill@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      1
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      9 months ago

      Only if you have some individuals with [cancer or whatever] resistance though.

      • Endorkend@kbin.social
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        7
        ·
        edit-2
        9 months ago

        Everyone has “cancer or whatever” resistance. That’s why DNA works, it has repair mechanisms.

        Getting cancer is when that mechanism either fails or isn’t good enough to repair the damage.

        Abnormal radiation levels can cause an excess of damage or different type of damage than what your natural mechanism is capable of fixing.

        We’re constantly being radiated, we’re constantly employing our resistances and defenses against radiation.

        We float around on a rock in a sea of radiation and even we ourselves emit low levels of (mostly harmless) radiation.