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Our world is constantly bombarded with high-energy particles from various sources, and if they hit just in the right place on the sensitive electronics our modern world is built upon, they can start flipping bits. Known as Single Event Upsets (SEU), their effect can range from imperceptible to catastrophic, and [Veritasium] explores this phenomenon in the video after the break.
The existence of radiation has been known since the late 1800s, but the effect of low-intensity radiation on electronics was not recognized until the 1970s, when traces of radioactive material in the ceramic packaging Intel DRAM chips have started to cause errors. The most energetic particles come from space and are known as cosmic rays. They originate from supernovas and black holes, and on earth, they’ve been linked to an incredibly fast Super Mario 64 speedrun and counting error in a Belgian election. It is also possible to see their way with the help of a fog chamber that you can build yourself. There are even research projects that use smartphone camera sensors as distributed cosmic ray detectors.
Earth’s magnetic field acts as a protective barrier against the majority of these cosmic rays, and there is a measurable increase in radiation as you gain altitude and enter space. In space, serious measures must be taken to protect spacecraft, and it is for this reason that the Perseverance The rover that landed on Mars this year uses a 20-year-old main computer, the PowerPC RAD750. It has been proven to be resistant to radiation and has been used on more than a dozen spacecraft. Astronauts experience cosmic radiation in the form of flashes of light when they close their eyes, and protecting their DNA from damaging effects is a serious concern for NASA.
It is impossible to know the true impact of cosmic radiation on our world and even our history. Who knows, one of those impossible to reproduce software bugs or the inspiration for your latest project might be from another galaxy.
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