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Nuked Coral Reef Bounces Back
sm62704 writes "I found this New Scientist article interesting, as I was actually alive (albeit very small) when Bikini Atoll was H-bombed. The article says that the reason the reefs are now flourishing is because they are mostly undisturbed by humans, who are afraid of the radiation. Background levels there are now 'similar to that at any Australian city,' while nearby islands haven't been so lucky.'When I put the Geiger counter near a coconut, which accumulates radioactive material from the soil, it went berserk,' says Maria Beger of the University of Queensland in Australia."
Would sure as hell make survivor more interesting.
"oh, and by the way, anything you eat is likely radioactive"
Maybe make the first episode with reality TV execs on the island....
Queue Gilligan's Island jokes too.
...
REAlly, I think it proves that after we screw things up royally on this planet to the point where we are no longer able to live on it, it won't take the earth too long to bounce back and thrive once more. Hopefully the next set of inhabitants on this planet will look after it better than we do.
Moved to http://soylentnews.org/. You are invited to join us too!
Animal life around Chernobyl is also doing well. That's not an indication that radiation is harmless (most animals are shorter lived than humans, so they can tolerate more radiation), it's an indication that human presence is even more harmful than radiation.
That's why I'm always saying Ahmadine-whatever should have his own atomic weapons.
Seriously, Iran may be as islamistic as it gets, but they're humans after all and hopefully not stupid enough start a nuclear war.
Their opponents however, who are trying to do everything to prevent them from producing A-bombs in the first place, are not to be trusted that much, because they (America, Israel) are the ones that have started wars in the last couple of years (the latter only in "defense", but I think they/their PR may be able to produce one such "defense" case quickly).
On the other hand, there shouldn't be yet another A-armed nation. But that's a vicious circle: how is a nation without A-bombs going to defend itself against, say, America? It's nearly impossible to defend yourself against America at all these days - if don't have that bomb, there's nothing you can do. If you do have it, however, it's likely you're not gonna be attacked in the first place.
Maybe this is the reason we haven't seen a war in Iran yet. They are afraid. Uhm... on the other hand it's more likely to be due to the pain in the neck that is Iraq and the upcoming elections in America.
I must admit that those are speculations I'm really just pulling out of my ass... but hey, that's what the comments threads are for, aren't they? Oh dear, I can se the "leftie"/"commie"/"antisemite"-responses rushing in... but please, in the name of whatever deity you believe in: a Semite may just as well be an Arab, so be correct and call me anti-Judaist. Which is not what I am, as I call some Jews my friends... btw: this article has not gotten the publicity it deserves.
I'm an infovore...
I am not sure that variations in genetic material gathered from the site has been studied yet. You are correct, however, that this is a very interesting thing to be studying. The fact that corals seem to have recolonised successfully (albeit with less diversity) is 'possibly' due to nearby atolls "seeding" the affected areas. The nearby atolls were obviously affected by radiation as well, and therefore subject to possible genetic mutations. Therefore, measuring the difference in genes between the nearby places and ground-zero might show no difference at all (because the mutated corals etc from nearby "seeded" the ground-zero area). I am not sure how this would be resolved, unless the baseline samples were taken from further away, where they were not irradiated... which leads to further problems (the genetic difference--if any is measured--may be caused by other factors)...
Look up what's going on around Chernobyl at the moment.
Whilst humans can't go anywhere near it, or the town of Pripyat, many species of plant and animals have flourished in the 30-odd years since the infamous meltdown. These species display no visible deformations, and continue to breed and live undisturbed by humans.
Almost as if they had just... evolved to cope with the massive doses of radiation they cop every day.