Pop culture likes to poke fun at the effects of radiation on the body, and without much real world scientific knowledge it’s hard to understand just how bad radiation is for the human body.
But we need look no further than the accident which took place at an uranium processing plant in Tokaimura, Japan in 1999 to see just how bad it is to receive a lethal dose of radiation.
IFL Science posted an informative, albeit a bit gruesome and disturbing, article entitled This Is What Radiation Can Do To The Human Body.
It tells the tale (and contains a NSFW and grisly image) of a poor fellow named Hiroshi Ouchi who was "exposed to incredible amounts of the most powerful type of radiation in the form of neutron beams". He felt fine at first, and was even able to talk to doctors when he arrived at the hospital, and then his skin began to fall off...
Read This Is What Radiation Can Do To The Human Body at IFL Science