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Chernobyl Worms Show Unexpected Resilience to Radiation (www.sciencealert.com)

submitted 8 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Tiny worms living in the radioactive Chernobyl Exclusion Zone (CEZ) surprisingly show no signs of radiation damage in their genes. Researchers compared the worms' genomes to those from non- irradiated areas and found no mutations caused by radiation.

This doesn't mean the zone is safe, but suggests these worms have remarkable resilience to radiation. Studying these worms might provide insights into DNA repair mechanisms that could benefit human health research, such as understanding why some people are more susceptible to cancers caused by DNA damage.

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[–] [email protected] 23 points 8 months ago (1 children)

Natural selection at work! (Because the ones that were vulnerable to radiation are already dead.)

[–] [email protected] 4 points 8 months ago

...so sacrifice one generation to "Evolution" and the threat of nuclear war is cancelled? Yee haw, I guess?

(/s, if that wasn't abundantly clear)