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Joji Otaki / EPA
This handout photo, released Tuesday, shows a healthy adult pale grass blue butterfly (top) and a mutated variety (bottom). Severe mutations were found in butterflies collected near Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.
TOKYO -- Researchers in Japan have found signs of mutation in butterflies, signaling one of the first indications of change to the local ecosystem as a result of last year's nuclear accident in Fukushima, according to one of the first studies on the genetic effects of the incident.
Joji Otaki from the University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, who led the research, collected 144 commonly-found pale grass blue butterflies two months after the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant.
Initial results indicated that roughly 12 percent of the butterflies showed signs of abnormalities, such as disfigurement in their antennas, smaller-sized wings, change in color patterns and indented eyes, Otaki said.
Even more alarming, when he collected another 238 samples six months later he found that those abnormalities had increased to 28 percent and the mutations had doubled to 52 percent in their offspring.
To see the effects of internal exposure to radiation, unaffected clean butterflies were also fed cesium-coated leaves collected from Fukushima. The result was a reduction in the size of those butterflies, as well as a lower survival rate.
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The Fukushima disaster occurred after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake knocked out a power line at the plant and generated a tsunami that flooded the facility's emergency generators, destroying the plant's cooling system. Catastrophic meltdowns occurred in three reactors, releasing radiation that has tainted the surrounding environment.
Five nuclear plants in total suffered some level of damage from the earthquake and tsunami; all but Fukushima Dai-ichi were shut down safely.
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'Something has gone wrong'
Otaki, who has been studying these butterflies for 10 years to analyze the effects of global warming, said that butterflies are the best environmental indicators because they are widely found in almost any environment.
"But since we've seen these effects on butterflies, it’s easy to imagine that it would also have affected other species as well. It’s pretty clear that something has gone wrong with the ecosystem,” he said.
AP
View side-by-side the progress that Japan has made since the tsunami and earthquake in March 2011.
However, at the same time, he also warns that because each species’ sensitivity to radiation varies, it was too early to immediately apply these finding to humans.
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But what is clear, said Otaki, is that the genetic changes found in these butterflies indicate a disruption in Fukushima's ecosystem and that more study is needed to learn the full scope of the effects of the radiation released into the environment.
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"Effects of low level radiation is genetically transferred through generation, which suggests genetic damage. I think it’s clear that we see the effects passed on through generations," Otaki added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Leave a Comment:
there have been a lot a disasters this and the past year makes you wonder if the maya's were probley not but still
Please don't drink and post.
For like the hundredth time that I have said this on these newsvines, the Maya Calendar does not predict the end of the world. Sometime in 2012-13 (varies depending on how you interpret it), the Great Cycle will end. This is not the first time the Great Cycle has ended, and will not be the last. All that happens once the Maya Calendar counts down is that a new cycle begins.
Shilodance - maybe they just ran out of room.
There needs to be a world body that inspects nuke plants and can shut them down. This is something that the UN might be good for, but they would probably fail at that also.
Man has been abusing this planet ever since civilization began. More so now that we have technology. It is more work to do things the right way like conservation, recycling, and avoiding encroaching on nature, and population control. Are we headed for trouble?You bet your sweet arse on that. Will people learn? Nope.
We have way too many people on the planet, our situation is not sustainable no matter what we do or how good technology can get. We need more water than exists, and all that fresh water underground, as a result of an ice age melt, is not going to be replenished until after the next ice age melt.
Mothra!!
I expect a Godzilla sighting any moment. But what if he's lurking under all that debris that is headed for California? Any way to steer him toward San Francisco?
I expect a Godzilla sighting any moment. But what if he's lurking under all that debris that is headed for California? Any way to steer him toward San Francisco?
It's the New World Order! They're plotting to wipe out man kind. They caused the tsunami and the earthquake. Smh
The before and after pics were interesting. Never saw a policeman, military personnel, national guard person, nothing. Only residents or rescue people going about their business. No looting, killing, raping, etc. Japan must be miles from New Orleans.
ani4ani: There was looting after the tsunami, and military personnel did most of the rescue work; with the police, the military also did (and is doing) most of the searching for bodies.
This is news? Where did they think Mothra came from, anyway??
its certainly a cautionary tale regarding the use of nuclear power. much more though has to go into how these plants are built and where their built. the Japanese are going to be lucky if this problem is contained to butterfly's.
Mutations? one word.. Godzilla
Actually my first thought was Mothra, or Insectasuarus. I'll admit the data is very sobering, and nothing to laugh at. Consdidering that birds will eat these butterflies and possibly sicken them, and we could see a mass die off of birds, if that hasn' happened already. I'm pretty sure there was a die off in birds from radiation. But altered butterflies? I can see a chain reaction right up the food chain, from one small insect. So it's very important work this man is doing, and i'm glad he's on the job.
MOTHRA!
Romney/Ryan have a wonderful no-fault plan for bringing more super low cost energy solutions to the U.S. citizens. There is a newly designed nuclear plant that will be built outside of all cities in the U.S. to help supplement the aging nuclear plants.
These low cost new designs will were designed by G.E. and have a safety life of nine years before needing any retrofitting.
Wouldn't it be great to have a nuclear plant just outside your own back-yard? Think of the super cheap energy they will produce. You can run your air conditioning all the time. And the new design is very striking and futuristic.
Vote for Romney/Ryan and secure your energy needs.
Sure beats coal belching plants doesn't it? Actually, I prefer solar. I have 10KW and are considering doubling that. IF you haven't looked at solar in a while, pricing has plummeted. It's now the cheapest form of energy if you DIY it, cheaper than anything including coal.
This is serious...Cant wait to see Godzilla come out of the Water...:D
Nuclear fall out from bomb tests, reactor accidents, waste sites, etc is slowly but surely killing all of us. To even add to these facts, the USA mititary used depleted uranium in its weapon arsenal in Iraq All for the mighty $, the evil War God of Global Capitalism!
We the People(s) accept and even vote for those who sacrify us the 99% for the sole financial benefit of the criminal 1%. We are brainwashed to become the 1% masters' slaves. We need to wake up and undo the traps we fell into.
Sell your fascist propaganda somewhere else, nobodies buying it. Free market capitalism eliminates greed through competition.
You thought this accident was bad, wait 'till you see what's coming; it won't be nice and the calamity coming will make Japan pale in comparison. Sorry, but the forth Reich is marching and ready to devour. This time, God intervens and destroys those evil things.
And it's going to start in about 7 - 10 weeks when Israel drops bombs on Iran.
Get the radaway! Where's my pipboy?! D:
Yup its Radiation that causes Global warming...Our water will taste so bitter it wont be fit for Human's to Drink..
Just like everything that go on with life. If you noticed that the second butterfly's wings are scorched.... Now thing about it........... It is not a mutation, but rather a result in the devastation in Japan. Did they find others like this????? Probably not. So there for it is not a mutation, but just happened, ONCE........................
Reading comprehension issues? How could you have missed "...28% of 238 samples collected..."? That would not be "ONCE".
"History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men".
The nimrods of baal won't ever find another planet like this one. If they did and I were a planet, I would run, I would ask God to please not allow those consumers and devouers a new planet, look what they did with this one.
God is going to destroy "babylon", like He destroyed "sodom and gomorrah".
how is this news?! we have known about Mothra for a long time now.
Just where were these butterflies collected ? If within 10 miles of Fukushima, yes, I imagine there would be damage to the eco system. But over time and distance the effects will be marginal, since the most harmful radioactive elements have a very short half-life.
Please. do NOT retort with the usual uneducated panic doomsday hysteria. I spent years of nuclear training in the military and have come to the conclusion that there many more dangerous, more immediate concerns in the world than radioactivity.
Yep, and your avatar illustrates that you're already a mutant and immune to the effects of radiation. There are plenty of dangerous immediate concerns.....I don't think anybody is saying that there isn't. But I wouldn't discount this one as not being part of the problem. It all keeps adding up and the scale will tilt. Or rather the scaffolding of popsicle sticks of technology that we have built upon will finally collapse. Malthus had a good point.
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
- Robert Frost
My guess is a virus.
The radioactive Cesium-135 has a very long half-life of about 2.3 million years.
Certain plants concentrate Cesium from the soil to their leaves; caterpillars consume those leaves and have been shown to be affected, as caterpillar's metamorphosis into butterflies and moths.
Of similar importance:
Strontium - Of greatest importance are Stronitum-90 with a half-life of 28.78 years and Stronitium-89 with a half-life of 50.5 days.
Critical to Humans:
Stupidium - Formerly frankium, lasts forever, causes losses in the primary faculty or ability to associate facts with vocalizations, including writings, a compulsive tendency to state and repeated indoctrination.
For example "I spent year in the military being told that long termed isotopes readily taken up by plants and animals don't win a war. Winning is more important than damaging food production for generations and to never check the facts." We can see how this useful in all the wars fought in the past 62 years, we have won every one, no reason to check the facts.
"Fat and ignorant is no way to go through life."
-Animal House
The most harmful of radioactive isotopes have very short half-lives. Also, the half-life is measured / estimated in a labratory environment and not in an ecosystem where natural processes shorten the decay rate exponentally. Every species that consumes residue from the orginally exposed plant / fauna further dilutes the harmful efffect.
As I have stated many times, the leakage at the Fukushima will have a short term limited effect in a small radius of area and will flush from the environment rather quickly.
So relax. There are many more more immediate dangers to worry about in our over-populated overheated world.