The word "radiation" causes panic in most of us. We are afraid to visit places with an increased radioactive background and there are products "poisoned" by radiation. Meanwhile, as scientists believe, humanity does not know so much about the properties of radioactive radiation …
Every year in the regions of Ukraine and Belarus adjacent to Chernobyl, at least 2500 children are born with anomalies of bones and internal organs, without a brain. Many of them show signs of early aging, many were born mentally retarded …
The natural level of mutations increased tenfold, and chromosomal abnormalities were passed on to subsequent generations. The vegetation has also mutated. In the Gomel region, the frequency of mutations in conifers has increased 2-3 times, in the Polesie radioecological reserve - almost 12 times.
However, a year after the accident, people began to return to the zone of radiation contamination. The settlers took up agriculture, began to raise livestock … They did not believe that their native places were dangerous to life. Instead of a scorched plain, they were greeted by lush, human-sized grasses. The animals remaining in the "dead" zone looked quite healthy and vigorous.
Gennady Polikarpov and Victoria Tsitsugina from the Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas in Sevastopol compared the behavior of three species of worms that live in water bodies near Chernobyl, as well as 20 km from it. In both lakes, the water had the same temperature and similar chemical composition. However, in the first, which was heavily irradiated, two species of worms switched from asexual reproduction to sexual reproduction. The third species, not adapted to sexual intercourse, doubled the rate of asexual reproduction. According to scientists, in this way the inhabitants of the reservoir tried to "grow" genes that give protection from radiation.
And not so long ago, scientists from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University (USA) discovered strange black mushrooms on the walls of the destroyed reactor. Analyzes have shown that as a source of vital activity they need only … radioactive radiation! This interested the head of the research group Arthur Casadewall. He believes that in the near future, such mutant mushrooms could be used as food for astronauts who make interstellar flights. After all, spacecraft have sources of ionizing radiation. True, it is not yet known whether the Chernobyl mushrooms are suitable for human consumption.
However, people living in the exclusion zone (where the radiation background exceeds 40 curies!) Calmly drink the water there and eat vegetables and fruits grown on "irradiated" soil (by the way, very juicy and tasty). They harvest and transport timber and livestock to neighboring areas. And the "neighbors" buy, although they know for sure: the goods were delivered from the radioactive zone.
The thing is that the effect of radiation on humans is still poorly understood. Yes, in many cases people get sick, children are born ugly. But not in all. For some individuals, radiation does not seem to have any effect. And sometimes the consequences are manifested in the most fantastic way. So, in women at the age of 70, lactation appears - milk is released from the breast. When examining several hundred teenage girls in Gomel, it turned out that their female reproductive cells are replaced by male ones!
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Positive "shifts" have also been recorded. According to the doctor of medical sciences, professor of Bryansk State University Vladimir Mikhalev, children from radiation-contaminated areas of the Bryansk region are ahead of their peers from "clean" areas in growth, they have a stronger immune system. The professor believes that under the influence of radiation, the hormonal background and the composition of enzymes change. Maybe our organisms have a potential that allows us to adapt to a sharp change in external conditions, including radiation?