As there are experiments studying influence of cosmic rays on organisms, http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11541768
I ask my self, if there any influence to DNA from atmospheric muons on the Earth surface as well?
The flux is well known, http://arxiv.org/abs/hep-ph/9803488 but, what is the energy needed to change the DNA? Do cosmics actually have higher probability to change DNA despite of cellular reparation mechanisms? If one takes greater timescales into account, could muons have been one of the causes of biological evolution?
Edit: Broader context is to approximate, if fluctuations of high energy primary cosmic rays (considering galactic flux, not the sun activity) are correlated to biological evolution. Apart from muons, other direct feedback from cosmic rays to living organisms is the $C-14$ production and incorporation.
Specific question is to approximate, how little is the volume in a cell (whether it is DNA it self or RNA mechanisms modifying DNA), how often does it effectively hit by a secondary cosmic, how high is the probability to hit the cell, when it's most susceptible for mutation.
I think, rate of successful genetic mutation can be calculated as $f_c= (\tau_1 + \tau_2)\cdot f_1 \cdot f_2 $, where $f_1$ and $\tau_1$ would be the cosmics rate and duration of passage, and $f_2$ and $\tau_2$ the sensitivity "rate" or probability and time window for a DNA change
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