#Fukushima. Earthquakes and Japanese Patent Activity - Tom Nicholas - HBS Faculty. Just before noon in September 1923, the Kanto region (where Tokyo is located) was affected by a strong earthquake. The Grand Kanto Earthquake, as it has become known, led to the destruction of Tokyo and Yokohama. Over 100,000 people lost their lives. Despite the severity of the earthquake and its aftermath, the country quickly recovered in key areas of economic activity. Consider patents as a proxy for resources devoted to innovation. In 1923 and 1924, patents registered in Japan fell by around one-third compared to 1922, the year before the Grand Kanto Earthquake. The Grand Kanto Earthquake only temporarily interrupted patenting activity. Tom Nicholas is an associate professor at Harvard Business School. Japan Nuclear Plant situation. Pictures From Japanese Earthquake And Tsunamis. Pictures From Japanese Earthquake And Tsunamis.
Japan hit by tsunami after massive earthquake. Japanese Government Confirms Meltdown. Why take iodide for radiation poisoning? « the bunsen boerner. The picture above is an aerial view of the Fukushima Daiichi power plant. As we all know, it was knocked about in the huge earthquake that hit Japan yesterday morning. At the time of this writing, it seems like there was some radioactive material leakage at the Fukushima Daiichi power plant, but it may have gone down.
There’s a lot of confusion about what’s going on, not surprisingly. It does seem like authorities are handing out iodide tablets as a precaution against radiation poisoning, however. So why would taking extra iodide protect against radiation poisoning? To answer that, we need to take a pretty big step back. Many nuclear reactors get their energy by smacking uranium-235 with a neutron, called fission. So when uranium-235 decays, it gets broken into a lot of smaller fragments. There are actually fourteen major radioactive isotopes of iodine. For example, iodine-129 has a half-life of 15.7 million years. Blam! However, the half-life of iodine-131 is 8 days. Like this: