Sir Samurai T. D. Luckey, PhD

Abstract

It was a new hospital, and my father, Dr. Frank Seymour Luckey, physician, surgeon and rancher, was a founding director. Dad was taciturn, very knowledgeable, and the strongest man I ever knew. During my birth, my mother, Lily Waggener Luckey, had a near-death experience. She was ill for several months following my birth and my Aunt Floti Waggener took care of me during this time. Although we always had enough to eat, mother worked and acted as if we lived in poverty. I was the youngest of five with three sisters and one brother. We lived at 415 So. Beech St. My B average shattered my siblings' haloes of academic achievement through high school. I played basketball, clarinet (poorly), sang in choirs and musical productions, and, in 1933-34, was president of my 300 member freshman class at Natrona County High School. Summers were spent on our ranch. Our ranch was about 60 miles north of Casper, about halfway between two famous spots in Wyoming: Kay Cee of the famous Johnson County range war in 1892, and the Hole-In-The-Wall, the only breech in a 30 mile red cliff through which "outlaws" escaped from the more settled country onto our range. The ranch consisted of about ten family/friends' homesteads of 640 acres each which controlled about 20 square miles of range on both sides of Murphy Creek. We eventually had about 500 cattle (5-8 were milked), about 150 horses (about 20 were used for work and riding), and 1-2000 sheep. The ranch provided a practical education in biology. I worked hard (half-days from 7 years old and full time from 11), mostly in hay fields, and became a good rider. I was not a cowboy, never had chaps, boots or spurs. Without radio, electricity, telephone, TV, or books, a boy had to do something. My hobby was snakes. I knew every part of Ditmar's (1931) encyclopedic volume on snakes. When I was about 11, "milking" rattlesnakes and collecting dried venom was a preamble to becoming a biochemist. When the ranch went bankrupt in the summer of 1935, I became foreman with one hired hand, a cook and a few remaining animals. I

Low Dose Ionising Radiation-Induced Hormesis: Therapeutic Implications to Human Health

“…Furthermore, LDIR could also induce cell proliferation in normal cells via the Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase (MAPK)/ERK signalling pathway, while p53 activation in cancer cells could induce cell cycle arrest or apoptosis, as shown in Figure 3. Reviews of the beneficial effects of LDIR, also addressing the risk of carcinogenesis and the need for a re-assessment of the LNT model, have been published over the past 20 years and beyond, mainly by Luckey and Calabrese [32,33,59,60]. Not only have these reviews provoked controversy between evidence supporting an hormetic dose response versus the LNT risk model, but they have increasingly revived interest in exploring the evidence base for bio-positive effects of LDIR.…”

“…Cell-to-cell interaction via gap junctions, protein mediators and signalling molecules released into a medium play a significant role in the BE, be it protective or detrimental, depending on the different cell types and their different responses [66,72]. Nitric oxide (NO), a signalling molecule, has been reported to play a role in the bystander response, inducing an increase in radioresistance in non-irradiated Reviews of the beneficial effects of LDIR, also addressing the risk of carcinogenesis and the need for a re-assessment of the LNT model, have been published over the past 20 years and beyond, mainly by Luckey and Calabrese [32,33,59,60]. Not only have these reviews provoked controversy between evidence supporting an hormetic dose response versus the LNT risk model, but they have increasingly revived interest in exploring the evidence base for bio-positive effects of LDIR.…”

“…This induced the adaptive response of the host, resisting infection but not killing the bacterial itself, hence enhancing survival [32]. The concept has been paraphrased: "sufficiently diluted toxicants should have a beneficial effect on the organism" [33]. In general, many studies have claimed that all toxic compounds may have hormetic effects, where low doses are stimulatory and large doses are harmful.…”