2024-04-10 11:59:36
Almost 40 years after the accident, Chernobyl still has a lot to teach us about radiation and life
On April 26, 1986, the core of reactor number four at the Vladimir Ilyich Lenin nuclear power plant overheated during a safety test, went out of control, melted, and triggered the largest nuclear accident that has ever occurred on the face of the Earth. .
Nuclear hell. During the following hours, days and weeks, 500 times more radioactive material was released in that area of northern Ukraine than was used in the Hiroshima bomb in 1945. A 30-kilometer “exclusion zone” was drawn around the plant, 91,200 people and more than 600,000 ‘liquidators’ sacrificed thousands of animals.
The Zone became a ghost place, first; and in the great natural experiment on the effects of radiation on living beings. And if not, ask the worms.
Worms? Now a team of biologists led by Sophia Tintori, from New York University, has found microscopic worms that seem immune to radiation damage.
The worms in question are nematodes of the species Onions They usually thrive on rotting fruit, hummus and other decaying organic masses. The team collected them in the Exclusion Zone, grew them in the laboratory and sequenced the DNA of 15 of them.
Radiation? What radiation? The curious thing about all this is that, when comparing them with other worms of the same species, they did not find the typical signs of radiation in their genes or the typical “large-scale chromosomal rearrangements” that should be found. In fact, when they exposed the worms (the Chernobyl ones and the rest) to new radiation, they found that the Ukrainians were not especially more tolerant than the rest.
Does this mean Chernobyl is safe? According to Tintori, it is too early to draw that conclusion. First because it is difficult to know “exactly what level of exposure each worm and its ancestors received over the last four decades.” And second, because in any case, what he confirms is that “nematodes are really resistant animals and can withstand extreme conditions.”