http://www.theverge.com/
At high doses,
radiation can have terrible and lethal effects on humans and nonhuman
animals alike. But what if organisms could adapt to low-levels of
radiation? This is what an international group of researchers are
suggesting in a bird study published recently in Functional Ecology, reports The Economist.
the researchers took feather and blood samples from 13 species
In the study, researchers
looked at the long term effects of low-dose radiation in bird
populations near Chernobyl in Ukraine — the site of the catastrophic
1986 nuclear accident. Previous studies have demonstrated that birds in
that area have better survival rates than those near the Japanese
Fukushima reactor that experienced a meltdown in 2011. Researchers think that's because these birds have had more time to adapt to radiation. So
they decided to test this theory by taking feathers and blood samples
from 13 species of birds in both low- and high-radiation areas
surrounding the Ukrainian reactor. They found that birds living in
high-radiation areas had much higher levels of glutathione in their
blood. Glutathione is an antioxidant that helps animals get rid of the
highly reactive, damaging molecules that are created when radiation
comes in contact with biological tissues.
Furthermore, high
glutathione levels were linked to lower amounts of genetic damage in the
birds' cells. "In other words," the researchers write in a summary
of their study, "these findings indicate that chronic exposure to
radiation has favored adaptation of birds to the damaging effects of
radiation."
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