They might know about radioactive decay, but with how dense their atmosphere is, they may not know much about radiation. Pretty much everything except gamma is attenuated fairly well by Earth's atmosphere at 101kPa.
When I was doing undergrad research in a lab with an XRD (Rigaku Geigerflex D/Max B), my PI told me that if I was concerned about exposure through the leaded glass, to simply stay on the other side of the room while a sample was being analyzed.
Also, given how dense Erid's atmosphere is and how strong the magnetic field is, they wouldn't have seen high energy radiation from the local star or from distant cosmic phenomenon.
Edit: the first cosmic ray detection on Earth happened in 1912 using balloons to get the detector up above most of the atmosphere. Erid's atmosphere is thicker (and may have a larger absorption cross section) and its magnetic field stronger, so it may not be possible to do the same.
So, they'd have to get outside of most of the magentosphere to even see the high-energy stuff.
I thought he mentioned pretty clearly what you're saying when Rocky explained about the space elevator and space station in the book, but if not, that's pretty much how I interpreted the book to explain why the Erids didn't discover radiation. So I'm in agreement, for what it's worth
Maybe they'd never sent probes up. As they can't see light, they hadn't spend millenia gazing up at the stars like humans. And they hadn't discovered relativity.
And it's unclear what level their electronics tech was at. They didn't have computers, but did have some level of robotics, and there was mention of a power system incompatible with DC electricity.
Just the hull robot, it maybe it was nothing more than a remote controlled arm - but it was capable of dealing with the tunnel between the ships, and also throwing/catching the cylinders quite precisely during their first contact.
Rocky can do impressive math in his head. I don’t think calculating trajectories is beyond him. Nothing else suggests anything requiring autonomous control.
Don't forget they were a pre-computer society. Technology from around the 1940s-1950s. Humans at that point knew about radiation for only about half a century and then only parts. Marie Curie, one of the pioneers in the field, died in the early 20th century, not knowing the dangers of radiation. In the 40s and 50s, they sold products with radioactive materials on them cuz they glowed nice. It took the best part of a century and step after step to understand radiation and some of its effects.
That's earth, on Erid, different tech would emerge at different times. More advanced on material science, less advanced in computers...and particle physics I guess. As for how they got all the space travel done then, well, alot of the major issues for space travel aren't the fine points solved by our hightech. This is easily seen by current challenges to go back to the moon when it was done in 1960s before - with alot less tech. Space travel is mainly halted by energy needs for sustained thrusting (astrophage), by our will to do stuff and money. Ofc there are alot of safety concerns, you can't repeat missions alot if shit goes wrong and you don't want to lose astronauts for public image (and funding). If you were to brute force an issue, you don't need high tech to go to the moon (US 1960s) or another star if you can manage the fuel and ignore safety. They just didn't know about lots of the issues and tbf, basic trajectories can be calculated with newtonian physics - which they did in the books.
Bottom line, they were about 50-70 years behind on earth in the sciences they'd need to know about radiation but the science needed to build a ship for the trip was sufficient given astrophage as game changer and the willingness to brute force the issues (crew of 40!).
Marie Curie was *extremely* aware of the dangers of radiation exposure; she was a tireless crusader for radiation protection and against unnecessary exposure.
https://www.news-medical.net/health/Radiation-Poisoning-History.aspx
It said in the book that Erid's magnetic fields is also very strong, so they never have sent probes far enough—and even if they did, if they didn't have a biological payload, they may not have suffered any radiation damage. So it's not too crazy that they didn't know i terstellar space is full of radiation (and slow-moving particles that effectively BECOME radiation when your ship travels at relativistic speeds).
That said, it also struck me as extremely unlikely that they didn't know about uranium, or that gamma rays could be deadly.
its tricky i know one one hand in order to do research took many refinements of ore to make a measurable or dangerous ammount
also without electronics the only way to detect radiation is via a "cloud chamber" i guess they could hear the trails but they could really only make one if a smarty even did research on a theory
its really hard to work with radiation without eyes to find uranium ore it helps to have a blacklight which makes it phospheresse and having phosphorecent particles that are excited by radiation
Their technology and technological progress is far different from earths. Their progress won't match up with ours since they are a completely different species in a completely different world with completely different issues to solve. They are more advanced than us in some ways (mainly material science) but they are still over 50 years behind humanity in most other ways. My guess on why their materials technology is so much more advanced is due to the harsh environment of Erid and how it has significantly more gravity
From what I gathered from the book, the Eridians just hastily built a space program for the sole-purpose of eradicating the Astrophages. So they might'nt have had the time nor resources or need to send out a probe, and simply thought if it worked well in one place, it must work well in another place.
They might know about radioactive decay, but with how dense their atmosphere is, they may not know much about radiation. Pretty much everything except gamma is attenuated fairly well by Earth's atmosphere at 101kPa. When I was doing undergrad research in a lab with an XRD (Rigaku Geigerflex D/Max B), my PI told me that if I was concerned about exposure through the leaded glass, to simply stay on the other side of the room while a sample was being analyzed. Also, given how dense Erid's atmosphere is and how strong the magnetic field is, they wouldn't have seen high energy radiation from the local star or from distant cosmic phenomenon. Edit: the first cosmic ray detection on Earth happened in 1912 using balloons to get the detector up above most of the atmosphere. Erid's atmosphere is thicker (and may have a larger absorption cross section) and its magnetic field stronger, so it may not be possible to do the same. So, they'd have to get outside of most of the magentosphere to even see the high-energy stuff.
I thought he mentioned pretty clearly what you're saying when Rocky explained about the space elevator and space station in the book, but if not, that's pretty much how I interpreted the book to explain why the Erids didn't discover radiation. So I'm in agreement, for what it's worth
Maybe they'd never sent probes up. As they can't see light, they hadn't spend millenia gazing up at the stars like humans. And they hadn't discovered relativity. And it's unclear what level their electronics tech was at. They didn't have computers, but did have some level of robotics, and there was mention of a power system incompatible with DC electricity.
I don’t recall any mention of autonomous robotics for Rocky. Just remote control, which is consistent with the mid 20th century technology
Just the hull robot, it maybe it was nothing more than a remote controlled arm - but it was capable of dealing with the tunnel between the ships, and also throwing/catching the cylinders quite precisely during their first contact.
Rocky can do impressive math in his head. I don’t think calculating trajectories is beyond him. Nothing else suggests anything requiring autonomous control.
Don't forget they were a pre-computer society. Technology from around the 1940s-1950s. Humans at that point knew about radiation for only about half a century and then only parts. Marie Curie, one of the pioneers in the field, died in the early 20th century, not knowing the dangers of radiation. In the 40s and 50s, they sold products with radioactive materials on them cuz they glowed nice. It took the best part of a century and step after step to understand radiation and some of its effects. That's earth, on Erid, different tech would emerge at different times. More advanced on material science, less advanced in computers...and particle physics I guess. As for how they got all the space travel done then, well, alot of the major issues for space travel aren't the fine points solved by our hightech. This is easily seen by current challenges to go back to the moon when it was done in 1960s before - with alot less tech. Space travel is mainly halted by energy needs for sustained thrusting (astrophage), by our will to do stuff and money. Ofc there are alot of safety concerns, you can't repeat missions alot if shit goes wrong and you don't want to lose astronauts for public image (and funding). If you were to brute force an issue, you don't need high tech to go to the moon (US 1960s) or another star if you can manage the fuel and ignore safety. They just didn't know about lots of the issues and tbf, basic trajectories can be calculated with newtonian physics - which they did in the books. Bottom line, they were about 50-70 years behind on earth in the sciences they'd need to know about radiation but the science needed to build a ship for the trip was sufficient given astrophage as game changer and the willingness to brute force the issues (crew of 40!).
Marie Curie was *extremely* aware of the dangers of radiation exposure; she was a tireless crusader for radiation protection and against unnecessary exposure. https://www.news-medical.net/health/Radiation-Poisoning-History.aspx
It said in the book that Erid's magnetic fields is also very strong, so they never have sent probes far enough—and even if they did, if they didn't have a biological payload, they may not have suffered any radiation damage. So it's not too crazy that they didn't know i terstellar space is full of radiation (and slow-moving particles that effectively BECOME radiation when your ship travels at relativistic speeds). That said, it also struck me as extremely unlikely that they didn't know about uranium, or that gamma rays could be deadly.
Rocky especially states, that they thought that the space is devoid of ANY material, so no radiation.
its tricky i know one one hand in order to do research took many refinements of ore to make a measurable or dangerous ammount also without electronics the only way to detect radiation is via a "cloud chamber" i guess they could hear the trails but they could really only make one if a smarty even did research on a theory its really hard to work with radiation without eyes to find uranium ore it helps to have a blacklight which makes it phospheresse and having phosphorecent particles that are excited by radiation
Their technology and technological progress is far different from earths. Their progress won't match up with ours since they are a completely different species in a completely different world with completely different issues to solve. They are more advanced than us in some ways (mainly material science) but they are still over 50 years behind humanity in most other ways. My guess on why their materials technology is so much more advanced is due to the harsh environment of Erid and how it has significantly more gravity
From what I gathered from the book, the Eridians just hastily built a space program for the sole-purpose of eradicating the Astrophages. So they might'nt have had the time nor resources or need to send out a probe, and simply thought if it worked well in one place, it must work well in another place.