radionuclide half-lives hydrogen-5 tellurium-128 range

Radioactive half-lives range from tiny fractions of a second to longer than the universe's age

Nearly 54 Orders Of Magnitude

Known radioactive half-lives cover an enormous range. Hydrogen-5 lasts about 8.6 × 10⁻²³ seconds, while tellurium-128 has a half-life longer than 2.25 × 10²⁴ years—a difference of nearly 54 orders of magnitude.

~2,600 km² of Chernobyl Exclusion Zone

Chernobyl's abandoned zone turned back into forest

After people left the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone, forests spread across much of the abandoned land and wildlife became common. The roughly 2,600-square-kilometer area remains contaminated and has very few permanent human residents.

The browning reaction in cooked food can also preserve ancient bodies

In cold, acidic peat bogs with little oxygen, the same Maillard reaction known from browned food can slowly tan human skin and help preserve some body material. It can also turn hair reddish. Cooking and bog preservation can therefore involve some of the same chemistry.

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radionuclide half-lives hydrogen-5 tellurium-128 range

Radioactive half-lives range from tiny fractions of a second to longer than the universe's age

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