With the gross irresponsible use of nuclear terms the press didn't understand during the actual earthquake, it doesn't surprise me to see them also blindly throw out the word mutation when what is probably present is simply cell damage. But the media knows that the word mutation creates the hype they want, and they really don't care if they are using the word accurately or not. It's only a mutation if the change in the butterfly is not simply damage that affects it's growth, but is an actual change in it's DNA that can be passed on to it's off-spring. Though they do use the word "off-spring" in the story to imply this is an actual genetic mutation, they don't really specify if the "off-spring" are simply damaged as a result of their parents, or whether they are damaged as a result of the existing radiation. They need to specify that appearance of the off-spring is IDENTICAL to the parent to even consider this as being a possible mutation.

Mothra!

all these animals were effected by radiation....and? what can we do now? not much it happened it cant be turned back no re-due button no takey backs so all the research in the world will do what? say it happened and thats it . so sorry see you bye bye

Attention, Chaos Theorists! Most of your unified field theories begin with "A butterfly flaps it's wings in Japan...and the tiny air currents whip into a thunderstorm in...".

Now there is Proof! Mutated Butterflies! In Japan!

Or... Some how the Anti-Chaos Boson has found a way back to the source in an attempt to restore entropy.

I personally will await my mutant thunderstorm!

And the watch for Mothra is underway...

The original article, "The biological impacts of the Fukushima nuclear accident on the pale grass blue butterfly," by Atsuki Hiyama, Chiyo Nohara, Seira Kinjo, Wataru Taira, Shinichi Gima, Akira Tanahara, & Joji M. Otaki, can be viewed here: http://www.nature.com/srep/2012/120809/srep00570/full/srep00570.html.

The authors seem to have found both physiological damage from radiation and genetic changes linked to radiation exposure (viz., mutations).

Thank God we're not butterflies! it can only be good for us. Don't eat Japanese butterflies though, they have screwed up proteins.

You little babies with your commical remarks... This is serious. Look at the studies of Hiroshima. ..."And everything in the seas will die..." It has begun.

just wait... this will start happening to people soon.

. . . and, as I've said 1,000 times, there is no such thing as a safe nuclear energy plant. Think what you may, we may all end up mutants.

I have seen Butterflies in that state as pictured in New Zealand. End of the season (going into winter) and harsh conditions enlarged the body of the Butterfly and the wings were less developed (such as those in picture). Poor development in the Chrysalis stage? There was no radioactivity in the environment though. Just a fan and not an expert though.

WakeUpAmerica-3716462 "If thinking like a republican means thinking rationally, then, please, by all means do so. It might enlighten you. You don't want nuclear power? What about coal? Oil? Natural gas? What do you want? The REALITY is that for at least the next couple of generations we are going to have to use ALL forms of energy that we can to meet the energy and economic demands of the world. In the future, technology will likely allow us to introduce viable alternatives. That day is not today. That is just a simple fact."

Here's some more "simple facts" - while you're at work, vacation, etc. your hot water heater is cranking away keep water hot for... NO ONE (mine too, I'm sorry to say)! Also, many of our TV's, computers, and other electronic appliances are burning up to 1/3 of their "ON" power even when they're "OFF", so if you work an 8-hour day - call it 9 hours, with lunch and travel - your TV has effectively been on for 3-hours.

Our homes, generally, leak power like a sieve! We build our houses using untreated 2x4 construction (generally) and expect them to last forever, while we make coffee stirrers, which we use for a few seconds, out of plastics which last multiple-thousands of years in our landfills. And the wiring in your home was probably designed ('sized') to a standard written in 1960.

How about, instead of trying to keep up with demand, we try to lower our demand - a dollar's worth of gas fuels my car for a few miles, but a dollar's worth of fiberglass insultation will insulate my house damn-near forever (assuming the house it's placed in is built to last)! We'll always need more energy if we're just throwing it out the door (or windows, or through the walls) and expecting to find more and more! And, of course, an average house is just one example of how we (myself included) mis-manage our resources, energy and money.

You seem to be a Republican (BTW, I'm a registered Republican!), so you're all about "balancing the budget" and not spending more than we make. How about applying that to energy? And use only renewable energy, living within our budget. We Americans are (or at least 'can be') pretty sharp folks. If put half the 'energy' we put into finding more sequestered carbon, into reducing our 'need' (I can live with my TV taking a few extra seconds to turn on) I think we'd be better off.

That said, "opinions are like a__holes - everybody has one, and they all stink"

Someone should stand up and advocate for the abolishment of nuclear weapons. There is hard evidence that nuclear weapons destroy many things not only people but flora and fauna, trees, flowers, moths, kittens and puppies and the list goes on. We can't allow this to happen any more, politicans in the U.S. and the rest of the world should get together and form a political group that advocates for the elimination of these weapons.

See? Nuclear power is really good for a diverse evolutionary path forward.

I'm surprised that no one has yet made an analogy between Mothra and either of the two US political parties...

This is a panacea for scientists who are looking for funding and pats on the head from the PC and wacko environmental crowd.

If the mutations are beneficial then the butterflies will survive. If not, the mutations will work their way out of the gene pool. This shouldn't be used as an excuse to stop nuclear power plants.

Coal has already been nuked by BO leaving us no choice but to use nuclear energy in the future unless you want to live in tents like the occupy idiots.

@ all the Mothra references.. it took me half way through these otherwise tripe filled posts to get to something I could be proud of :').

At least they didn't have any local lizards in the same area, no?

@ usagi:

So what you're saying is we've been @!$%#ed from day 1? What then is the point of repenting or following any of the rules at this point, especially citing that we're due to get fire and brimstoned again anyday now?

Not that I'm an "unbeliever" or an atheist, but the reason I'm not knee deep in religion is because of these kinds of infinite loops that you can't argue your way to sense within.

That being said, I have no idea why mosquitos exist and have been asking myself what would be the consequence of them being exterminated.. buuuut I like to subscribe to very simple truths about Earth.. one being that everything exists and happens for a reason.. and no good ever comes of it when we try killing animals off or moving them some place else for our own sakes.

I'm sure mosquitoes exist for a reason. We don't know the reason as we didn't make them. But just like everything else on Earth, they have or had a purpose.

Or maybe they have the same lack of particular purpose for existing that we have. Can anyone tell me a reason why humans exist? We're just as parasitic to the natural environment as mosquitoes are to us.

Maybe.. life doesn't have a reason or a purpose other than existing and interconnecting in the ways that it does.. some of them harmonious.. some of them annoying.

:O Le gasp.. that seems to make sense... although I am just guessing. You can infer a lot from observing the world, though. We have no more purpose than mosquitoes, yet we are allowed to exist. Why? Perhaps for existence's sake :D.

As a subscriber to any belief that acknowledges God or a creating unit, it would've been far more consistent and intelligent to have said that, in keeping with the notion that "God works in mysterious ways". You can't say that sometimes and then have an anecdote or a made up story to fain understanding of the way god works another time.

I'm just saying.

That also being said, I do think the random attack against faith bearing people and their belief was also uncalled for. But you don't answer unnsubstantive nonsense with the same kind of nonsense that makes you a target. It just begets more attacks and contributes to your persecution complex.

I have only one thing to say to all the panicky fearful individuals among us that see deadly radioactive dangers everywhere.

---Hiroshima and Nagasake---

How many liters of radioactive isotopes were released in those two explosions ? Yet, the Japanese continue to breed true and prolific.

I visited Hiroshima TWICE and the only trace of their catastrophy is what they have preserved at their Peace Memorial Park.

Sushi, anyone?

History shows again and again how Nature rejects the folly of men.

I want to know what MORON decided to build a reactor so close to where a tsunami could hit. Japan is hit a lot so the thinking escapes me.

skunky-shoes (comment #25.7)--you bring up an EXCELLENT point about the lack of looting and other forms of lawlessness during that calamitous disaster! And here we sit at our computers, allowing ourselves to be pitted against each other. I do believe that there is a lesson to be learned in that amazing example.

All in all, I'm afraid that we humans have set ourselves up for some really hard times. Here we sit on this mostly water planet, using up resources like crazy, polluting in an astoundingly wide variety of ways and taking safety shortcuts in so many different fronts. I don't doubt that the technology exists today to make nuclear power a whole lot safer. What I worry about is, do we have the wisdom, foresight, maturity, and ethics to be sure it's done right--no shortcuts for $ sake? That is the question we as a species face.....

Yes, I copied that from my comment #25.12, but I think it's worth repeating.

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