Fallout: Did you catch the title of the SF series? He’s hiding more than you think!

It’s almost the end of the world on Prime Video, but with panache! With Fallout, the free adaptation of the popular video game franchise, it’s time for fun and unlimited fun, even if the subject matter is a priori serious.

In the series, the world ends on October 23, 2077 with a series of nuclear explosions that lead to a true apocalypse. And the term “fallout” literally means: “radioactive fallout”. As you can imagine, this explosion leads to disaster.

A post-apocalyptic United States features mutated monsters (including nearly meter-long cockroaches), irradiated humans called ghosts, and survivors who live hard lives and are just as tough. It’s classic atomic-age sci-fi stuff, the kind of storybooks that Fallout takes its inspiration from for a retro-futuristic version of America.

Very realistic

But there’s more science to this science fiction story than you might think, according to Pran Nath, a renowned physics professor at Northeastern University. In the opening minutes of Fallout, Los Angeles is hit by a series of nuclear bombs. Although it’s set in an obviously fictionalized version of the City of Angels – the futuristic, glittering robots and skyscrapers in the distance are proof of that – the nuclear explosions themselves are shockingly realistic.

Nath explains site From his university, after the release of a nuclear device, the explosion occurs in three stages.

“When a nuclear explosion occurs, a large amount of energy and radiation is released in a very short time due to a chain reaction.“, explains Pran Nath.First, there is a huge flash that corresponds to a nuclear reaction that produces gamma rays. If you’re exposed to it… people, like in Hiroshima, essentially vaporized and left shadows“.

Depending on how far a person is from the blast, even partially shielded people will see their bodies quickly heat up to 50 degrees Celsius, causing severe burns. The burnt skin of the ghouls in Fallout isn’t entirely fictional (although their centuries-long lifespan makes this aspect unlikely).

A bit like Oppenheimer

The second phase is a shock wave and a blast of heat – what Nat calls a “fireball”. The shockwave that appears in Fallout’s first scene spreads quickly after the explosion, but Nath explains that it might happen faster and less cinematically. It traveled at about the speed of sound, or about 1,200 km/h.

The shock wave also exerts enormous pressure. “Big enough to knock down concrete buildings“. He follows “Fireballwhich will incinerate all buildings in the blast zone with an intense heat wave.

“The blast zone is defined as the area where the shock waves and fireball are most intense– Nat explains.For Hiroshima, this zone was 1.5 to 3 km. In fact, everything in this blast zone is destroyed“.

One almost after the worst

The third phase of a nuclear detonation is the detonation, which lasts much longer and has an even wider effect than the explosion and shock wave. As a result of a nuclear explosion, a mushroom cloud is formed, which reaches more than 15 km in the atmosphere. A cloud carried by the wind spreads the radioactivity beyond the blast zone.

“During a nuclear explosion, up to 100 different radioactive elements are produced– Nat explains.These radioactive elements have lifetimes that can range from a few seconds to millions of years. They pollute, damage the body and cause long-term damage, causing cancer, leukemia, etc.“

A “trick” in Fallout

Vaults are a staple of the Fallout universe. These are huge underground bunkers the size of a small city, where the luckiest – that is, the richest – can hide in the event of the end of the world.

These vaults are much more sophisticated than most shelters in our world, but Nathi explains that this type of protection is necessary if we want to protect against the radiation emitted by nuclear weapons, especially gamma rays, which can penetrate several meters. of concrete.

“If you’re further away and you stay inside and behind the concrete, you can avoid the initial flash of a nuclear explosion and probably withstand the shock waves and the heat that comes with it, so you’re more survivable,” Nutt explains.

What about mutants roaming the post-apocalypse wasteland?

You might think Fallout’s colossal, monstrous mutant salamanders and giant cockroaches are science fiction. But, in fact, there is a real basis for this, explains Nathi.

“There are several types of abnormalities that occur during radiation“, the scientist explains. “They can also be genetic. Radiation can create mutations that are similar to spontaneous mutations in animals and humans. For example, mutated animals were found in Chernobyl.“

The genetic composition of wild dogs in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone has changed radically. Scientists suggest that wolves living near Chernobyl were more resistant to radiation, which could make them sick.Cancer resistant“, or even less likely to get cancer. As for frogs, they have adapted to have more melanin in their bodies, a form of radiation protection that turns them black.

And now?

Fallout takes the grim reality of nuclear war and turns it into a darkly humorous sci-fi story, but Pran Nath says it’s important to remember just how devastating these bombs are.

About 146,000 people died in Hiroshima and 80,000 people in Nagasaki as a result of the bombs dropped by the United States. According to Nat, the decline may even exacerbate global warming.

“A thermonuclear war would be a global problem“, concludes the scientist, without specifying that today’s bombs are much more powerful than those of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Fallout is currently available on Prime Video