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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:
Wake me up when the Sea Bass are mutated
First Mothra and next.........The Gigan. Better call Godzilla!
Wonderful job Guys ! You know we should have stayed in simple
lifestyle the hell with nuclear and all the rest of mans big Ideas, and all this @!$%# that were digging a large hole for ourselves
Shandril, so are you. If many of us had our druthers, we wouldn't be. We'd be more than happy to not communicate with the likes of you.....totally oblivious to your existence.
Emotionally and spiritually retarded with lot's o'toys.
Until we have a the ability for 100% clean-up, we need to stop getting ahead of ourselves.
Sometimes people do things they dislike. We are, sometimes, controlled as much or more by our environment(societal & ecological) than we are by ourselves. If you find it wrong to question your existence, behavior or environment, then you have no intellect. What you have is programming. This is the elusive key in both creating artificial intelligence and identifying the Psychopath. Question this post if you can, pretend to disagree if you must. Does not every situation of irrationality require different premises?
Because I am an organic-electrical(my own term) point of being just like everyone else. Our knowledge and beliefs depend on each other and the world around us. How can we not be swayed by such means? What are you surrounded by? What do you surround yourself with? How can one allow dogma, if not by unconditional surrender? Whom does your surrender benefit?
flocker: Many sites (e.g., http://www.learnenglish.de/) will allow you to study English for free. You may even be able to find someone who knows English to teach you for free.
After you've got a good start on learning English, maybe you can come back and try to re-post #28.4 and #28.5 as something that makes a modicum of sense.
No argument, just critique of grammar? You know that one cannot re-post. You are being illogical. .de? Dieses ist falsch.
"you've got"?
flocker: More bluntly: your posts at #28.4 and #28.5 are gibberish. Please post something that both is germane to the discussion and can be understood by people who understand English.
It is not my fault that you are a willfully ignorant troll.
Usted es el duende mas atractivo que he resuelto nunca. ¿A Cuando y donde puedo chupar su pequeno pene?
yea, nuclear power is totally safe! don't worry, earthquakes and stuff that could comprimise the safety of the reactors never happen!
Just beware. Buy not products Made in Japan. They light up at night. Everything is radioactive over there. What a cesspool.
what is this radiation doing to unborn babies and animals too.
Eventually, we'll know first-hand, since their ratio-active garbage is washing up here. And, the fall-out has covered the north-west coast.
Can animals/insects actually mutate that fast?
looks to be the case. real X-men are a possibility
Yes, Bobby, they can. The radiation affected the genes of adult butterflies who reproduced. Their offspring is where the mutations are realized. It happened this quickly because the insects have very short life cycles.
Humans have a much longer life cycle so you don't see mutations as quickly. It might even take several generations in the case of recessive genes.
...
This is serious.
Look what happened after the bombs in WWII.
All those folks mutated into Japanese folks.
I wonder where the failed reactor was that caused frogs to mutate into humans.
...
?
Guess we'll be seeing Godzilla next.
They already had Mothra....what would we call this movie? Butterflies aren't really scary, so would this be a giant butterfly flapping around harmlessly from giant tree to tree? hhhmmmm......
It has always amazed me that nuclear power is supposedly so clean and safe, but solar and wind is apparently far beyond our current technology...
It's like a Monty Python movie...
Nuclear power is clean and safe.
You mean if you don't count Thee Mile Island?
Yes, of course if you don't count Three Mike Island nuclear power is clean and safe.
And if you don't count Chernyoble?
Well of course you can't count Chernyoble, but aside from Three Mile Island, and Chernyoble, nuclear power is perfectly clean and safe.
And Japan.
Well certainly you don't count Japan, jeez, idiot. Japan is going to glow in the dark for the next million years along with all the other meltdowns, spills, nuclear waste dumps and burial sites. If you don't count Three Mile Island, Chernyoble, Japan, the waste it generates and won't degenerate for countless generations of human lives, nuclear power is perfectly clean and safe!
Unless a waste dump site leaks, then it will cause unimaginable ecological damage for generations to come and contaminate vast areas and ecosystems if it gets into the water table.
Well, CERTAINLY if a waste dump leaked it could practically destroy vast areas and render them uninhabitable for eons, but ASIDE from all the accidents, damaged ecosystems, mutated flora and fauna, increased instances of childhood cancer, and everything else, NUCLEAR POWER IS PERFECTLY CLEAN AND SAFE!
I don't know why the hippies have to make up global warming, the radiation is going to kill us long before...
Oh, SHUDDAP!
That's because solar and wind are not reliable enough or of the magnitude/scale to power our insatiable appetite for energy. Nuclear has great potential once fossil fuels have been consumed. We can use nuclear power plants to energize our electrical grids that will have enormous demands placed on them once all cars eventually go electric. However, we have many years left to consume all the coal, oil, natural gas, etc. that this planet has blessed us with. The energy sky is far from falling.
Also because solar and wind need batteries that store the power generated during the active power states (ie daytime/low cloud cover, windy days). We just don't have the battery storage ability right now. There is one company on the nasdaq that works on building better batteries to store wind and solar power, but that company is struggling. We have coal, nuclear, and fossil fuels, so why bother with renewable and plentiful natural resources? Our government subsidizes building solar and wind generaters, but puts minimal efforts into investing in the main thing that prevents solar and wind technology from advancing - storage.
I have to say, anyone who says we have plentiful non-renewable resources, considering in a few generations we will have used all those resources up, no matter if we need them for OTHER uses than just burning them up, is just a total moron...
Traffic, skinger, in a few generations we will have used up all of many resources human beings might ever need. A few generations really are so selfish they would deprive the rest of humankind forever resources that might be needed for a million more important purposes than just burning it? Adolf Hitler has nothing on you two huh? He only brought misery for hundreds of millions for a few years, you two would have all mankind suffer eternally.
Well Shandril, look in the mirror.
But you do have a point.....the sharp increase in the number of children along the Autism Spectrum. If you spend a bit of time looking at the biodynamics of that phenomenon, that specter is far more terrifying than any nuclear confabulation.
I firmly believe that nuclear pollution is already causing widespread birth defects, including severe neurological and cognitive impairments. Just look at the people commenting in this forum. Their collective IQ score would still fall well below average.
That could also be the result of inbreeding....just saying..
Seriously? If we had put as much time and effort into creating wind/water/solar energy, and if we had invested in creating batteries to hold that kind of power,if we had invested even a fraction of the amount we have spent subsidizing the coal, gas, and nuclear industries, of course we could have created sustainable energy sources. The problem is -- that would have taken away the profits collected by the corporations that monopolize energy technologies. And of course, they were not going to let that happen.
And if a frog had wings, it wouldn't bump its ass so much.
Some people prefer cucumbers that are pickled.
I'm pretty sure that almost all the cancer in all animals, [we are animals], today was, and is caused by all of the nuclear weapons and reactors.. I think the politicians and mad scientists and investors that make huge profits in this sort of evil should be nuked and left to suffer a slow death, just like the innocents who are dying and suffering.. That's real justice.
Hold on to your foil hat and keep believing in the conspiracies.
One of the causes, definitely.
Where is Godzilla when you need him? We need him to arise from the sea to battle this Mothra monster.
Sadly I can relate to that poor butterfly......
Me too.
It's Mothra, eyeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!
yep, another example of the world ending on 12/21/12
Misinterpretation of the Maya Calendar, the Great Cycle actually is going to end in 2013, but the world is not going to end. Another cycle is going to begin.
I don't think my attempt at snark needs a literal interpretation. But thanks anyway.
The "Japan disaster" is not something that happened in the past (despite the average American's attention span): it is ongoing. This is the tip of the iceberg... the canary in the coal mine.
This is just the beginning.
And still, Japanese big business and their minions in the government (sound familiar?) force nuclear power in that country to continue: against the wishes of the people.
Can you imagine what will happen when something similar occurs in this country?.
Immagine that! Mutated butterflies!
Gee, maybe nuclear energy can cause problems?
Where are the mutation deniers?
The origin of Mothra is now explained.
Do Not eat fish from Japan waters and be careful of Tuna because most come from or migrate from Japan waters so do not eat Sushi!
UN needs to demand that Japan not re open those risky reactors. They have already polluted the entire Pacific Ocean, they should not be allowed to do any more damage.
Or from the gulf. That area is also going to be poisoned for generations.
Watch out for Mothra!
I remember seeing a program on a PBS station a couple of decades ago about the small island in the Pacific where the first A-Bomb was tested.That program showed fish hanging on shrub branches .Since the nuclear waste was washed to the Ocean I wonder what will crawl out of the seas???????