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Radioactive Snails Crawl Up From Beneath

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the all-the-powers-of-a-man-sized-snail dept.

slidersv writes "Reuters is reporting discovery of radioactive snails in the area where three hydrogen bombs were lost by US in the 1966. The radioactive creatures crawl up from underground, where authorities suspect deposits of uranium and plutonium may be located."

8 of 397 comments (clear)

  1. Radio-Cochlear Overlords by P(0)(!P(k)+P(k+1)) · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Jokes about radio-cochlear overlords aside, two things come to mind:

    • If we don't survive nuclear holocaust: what creatures, more robust than we, will? (Reminds me of the thriving Chernobylian fauna.)
    • What ungodly mutations must an organism undergo to thrive therein?
    If the future is bleak for humanity, it may be less so for simpler, more robust organisms.
    1. Re:Radio-Cochlear Overlords by Loconut1389 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      While not about radioactivity, this is related.

      Funny enough, I was microwaving a bowl of soup yesterday and some sort of gnat-like bug flew in as I was shutting the door and I didn't notice until I saw it flying around while the microwave was running. For several minutes it just kept buzzing around like nothing bothered it at all. My only other experience with microwaved creatures was when I was young and a rather large spider (tarantula size) that had had me hunting my room for hours was finally caught- suffice it to say, he didn't fare nearly as well in the microwave. For the record I've not nuked anything else (poodles for instance) since. Anyway, as this little gnat buzzed around, I wondered how he could possibly survive in that environment.

      Sometimes, against all odds, things survive where they shouldn't, and for no apparent reason. The miracle of life?

    2. Re:Radio-Cochlear Overlords by famebait · · Score: 5, Interesting
      If we don't survive nuclear holocaust: what creatures, more robust than we, will

      Or more importantly, in a fight, who would win:
      • Radiocative snails
      • Sharks with frickin lasers on their heads
      Mod "Interesting" for snails, "Informative" for sharks.
      --
      sudo ergo sum
  2. And what about Thule? by jginspace · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I thought the TFA might be talking about the crash of the B52 in Thule. This incident refers to a 1966 crash in Spain whereas the Thule incident happened in 1968.

    Perhaps scientists should check out the Thule site for similar happenings? More here: http://www.semp.us/biots/biot.php?biotID=5 and http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/low/dates/stories/ january/28/newsid_2506000/2506207.stm

  3. Why were they flying nuclear bombs around in 1966? by Heir+Of+The+Mess · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I'm not really good at history, so I'm wondering if someone could explain why in 1966 the Americans had B-52 bombers flying over Spain carrying 4 nuclear bombs.

    Was this some kind of pre-emptive strike plan?

    We're ICBMs not so good back then?

    It seems to me that if you could damage and capture one of these planes, you could lay your hands on 4 nuclear bombs. Something that would be a bit of a security risk.

    --
    Australian running a company that does C# / C++ / Java / SQL / Python / Mathematica
  4. Re:Holy fucking shit by nametaken · · Score: 2, Interesting


    So I'm reading the wikipedia article you listed there, and I learn that they searched for one of the bombs using something called, "Bayesian search theory".

    Who would have thought nuclear weaponry and anti-spam technology would be somehow related? :)

  5. Kosher food by iendedi · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It's interesting to think about what kinds of food would be safe to eat after a large scale nuclear war. You certainly couldn't eat shellfish or snails, because they soak up toxins very readily. Also, you should probably avoid pigs, because they eat everything. And, if you eat meat, it would be advisable to bleed it first because toxins build up in the blood.

    Makes you wonder about the real history of Kosher laws in Judaism.

    --

    It is your personal duty to fight for what is right on a daily basis. Ignoring injustice is identical to approving
  6. Re:This is mere ONE of about 14 other nuke acciden by Frumious+Wombat · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That plutonium might not be "missing". I heard a talk from one of the chemists working on remediation at Hanford, who said that at Oak Ridge they'd discovered a significant portion of the "missing" plutonium hanging out as drifts of barely sub-critical plutonium dust in the ventilation system. Not 'explode' subcritical, mind you, but 'a little more accumulation, and we'll have a real radiation event' subcritical.

    So, rather than having been repurposed as weapons, it could still be polluting the facilities where it was used.

    --
    the more accurate the calculations became, the more the concepts tended to vanish into thin air. R. S. Mulliken