In 1986, the nuclear power plant at Chernobyl- then in the USSR, now in Ukraine- experienced meltdown. This disaster is one of the worst in nuclear history. However, there are some biological consequences we should explore.

Sources for this episode:

The Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica (2020), Chernobyl accident summary (online) (Accessed 29/05/2024).
The Editors, Encyclopedia Britannica (2024), Half-life (online) (Accessed 31/05/2024).
Ellegren, H., Lingren, G., Primmer, C. R. and Møller, A. P. (1997), Fitness loss and germline mutations in barn swallows breeding in Chernobyl. Nature 389: 593-596.
Hine, R. S. (2019), Oxford Dictionary of Biology (8th edition). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Møller, A. P. and Mousseau, T. A. (2015), Strong effects of ionizing radiation from Chernobyl on mutation rates. Nature Scientific Reports 5: 8363.
Weinberg, H. Sh., Korol, A. B., Kirzhner, V. M., Avivi, A., Fahima, T., Nevo, E., Shapiro, S., Rennert, G., Piatak, O., Stepanova, E. I. and Skvarskaja, E. (2001), Very high mutation rate in offspring of Chernobyl accident liquidators. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 268: 1001-1005.

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