Worms living near Chernobyl nuclear disaster zone have developed a ‘super power’
Callum Jones
Featured Image Credit: Sophia Tintori / Igor Kostin/Laski Diffusion/Getty Images
Worms living near the world’s most well-known nuclear disaster zone appear to have developed a 'super power'.
While it may have taken place many years ago, the 1986 Chernobyl disaster is still very relevant to this day.
In fact, scientists continue to visit and conduct experiments in the area, with a new study providing some intriguing findings.
Recently, experts visited Chernobyl to investigate nematodes, tiny worms with fairly simple genetic makeup.
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The worms were gathered from soil samples, rotting fruit and other materials.
While conducting that, the scientists also tested local levels of radiation.
And as is often the case with radiation levels in that part of the world, they varied from low levels often recorded in large cities, to high levels found in outer space.
Scientists took the worms they gathered to New York University to freeze and study them.
Dr Sophia Tintor, lead author of the study, said: "Chernobyl was a tragedy of incomprehensible scale, but we still don’t have a great grasp on the effects of the disaster on local populations.
“Did the sudden environmental shift select for species, or even individuals within a species, that are naturally more resistant to ionizing radiation?”
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The 1986 disaster at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant subsequently transformed the nearby surrounding land into the most radioactive on Earth.
Of course, human inhabitants had to leave their homes and everything they loved, but plants and animals were able to stay in the area despite the high levels of radiation.
But nearly 40 years after the disaster, animals living in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone are typically genetically different from the same species found elsewhere.
This has therefore raised questions surrounding the impact of chronic radiation on DNA.
Matthew Rockman, a biology professor at New York University, said: "These worms live everywhere, and they live quickly, so they go through dozens of generations of evolution while a typical vertebrate is still putting on its shoes."
What is perhaps the most eye-opening part of this latest study is the fact that, despite the obvious high radiation levels, the genomes of the worms were not damaged... AT ALL.
But before you get your hopes up that Chernobyl could be safe for the first time in the best part of four decades, this doesn't really apply to us.
Dr Tintori revealed that the latest study concludes that worms are resilient animals which can withstand extreme conditions. You can say that again.