system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: How does radiation cause genetic mutations?
gpt
Ionizing radiation (the dangerous kind) can pass through your cells into the nucleus, where your DNA is stored. Your DNA is the code of how your body works and grows. The radiation can damage the DNA code, scrambling, deleting, or otherwise messing it up. Usually, this causes cell death or cancer. However, if this damage happens to cells used in making babies (sperm, egg), then this damage can be carried into the baby. That means that the changes can cause developmental mutations. However, this usually also means that the fetus can't form enough to actually survive.