Food irradiation (the application of ionizing radiation to food) is a technology that improves the safety and extends the shelf life of foods by reducing or eliminating microorganisms and insects. Like pasteurizing milk and canning fruits and vegetables, irradiation can make food safer for the consumer.

Why does food stay fresher for longer after it has been exposed to gamma radiation? Gamma radiation is a very high-energy form of electro-magnetic radiation, which occurs naturally. The effect of this ionisation process is to kill the micro-organisms that make food decay quickly, thus slowing down the process of decay.

Exposure to gamma rays does not make food radioactive. In both cases, organisms that are responsible for spoiling foods – such as insects, moulds and bacteria, including some important food poisoning bacteria – can be killed.

To preserve food with radiation, the item is exposed to to gamma rays (which are similar to X-rays) emitted by radioactive materials. At this level, gamma rays penetrate the food and kill bacteria and other infectious organisms by preventing the organisms from dividing and growing.

Astronomers have spotted the highest-energy radiation ever seen from the most powerful cosmic explosion in the universe. The blast of radiation, known as gamma-rays, came in two bursts that hit Earth with more than 100 billion times the energy in visible light.

GRB 080916C is a gamma-ray burst (GRB) that was recorded on September 16, 2008 in the Carina constellation and detected by NASA’s Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. It is the most powerful gamma-ray burst ever recorded.

Thousands of times more energetic than ordinary exploding stars, their visible light as bright as a million galaxies, gamma-ray bursts are the most violent events in the universe, and radiation from one of these events reaches the vicinity of Earth at a rate of about one a day.

Flour and many other carbohydrates become explosive when they are hanging in the air as dust. Just about any carbohydrate dust, including sugar, pudding mix, fine sawdust, etc., will explode once ignited.

Tsar Bomba