Introduction

Radiation is scary. We can’t see, hear, smell, or touch it, and we know that it can do terrible things to us. In large enough doses, it can kill us. Significant doses received over a long period of time can increase our odds of getting cancer. It is easy to fear. Radiation is also well studied, and this knowledge can be used to dispel some of the fear it so easily engenders. This chapter will focus on the fundamentals of physics that can help us answer questions such as “What is radiation?”, “Where does it come from?”, and “What does it want with us?”