Study upgrades protons’ risk to DNA

Proton radiation—beams of hydrogen nuclei—causes worse breaks in DNA than researchers had expected, a study finds.

This radiation “will not be good for astronauts,” says Betsy M. Sutherland of Brookhaven National Laboratory in Upton, N.Y. NASA funded her work to evaluate risks to travelers in space, where they will encounter proton radiation from the sun and exploding stars.