A Beautiful Planet calls Earth's atmosphere "a delicate cocoon of air that shields us from our star's radiation." Of course, the atmosphere doesn't completely block electromagnetic radiation from the Sun; without some sunlight reaching the surface, plants could not harvest the Sun's energy, and practically no life as we know it could exist. The atmosphere's ozone layer does filter out much of the harmful ultraviolet light (or "UV rays") produced by the Sun. UV rays can cause skin cancer, and catastrophic damage to the ozone layer may have contributed to Earth's most extensive mass extinction of species ever, the End-Permian extinction (also known
Biological effects of radiation on the epigenome pediatrics has been shown to have a greater impact as children's cells are still developing. The radiation obtained from medical imaging techniques is only harmful if consistently targeted multiple times in a short space of time. Safety measures have been introduced in order to limit the exposure of harmful ionizing radiation such as the usage of protective material during the use of these imaging tools. A lower dosage is also used in order to fully rid the possibility of a harmful effect from the medical imaging tools. The National Council on Radiation Protection and Measurements along with many other scientific