An Interview with Nick Redfern and a report on the effects of radiation on insects.

Interview with Nick Redfern

    Nick Redfern     August 15, 2012     By: Frank Zero

http://www.examiner.com/article/interview-with-nick-redfern

Worth a read

'Severe abnormalities' found in Fukushima butterflies

By Nick Crumpton BBC News

Mutated pale grass blue butterfly The study found that mutation rates were much higher among butterfly collected near Fukushima. Scientists found an increase in leg, antennae and wing shape mutations among butterflies collected following the 2011 Fukushima accident. The link between the mutations and the radioactive material was shown by laboratory experiments, they report. The work has been published in the journal Scientific Reports.

By comparing mutations found on the butterflies collected from the different sites, the team found that areas with greater amounts of radiation in the environment were home to butterflies with much smaller wings and irregularly developed eyes. "It has been believed that insects are very resistant to radiation," said lead researcher Joji Otaki from the University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa."In that sense, our results were unexpected," he told BBC News.

Read rest here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19245818

I can remember an article in the Observer newspaper , many years ago, possibly the 80’s, in which an artist had drawn pictures of mutated insects she had found near a nuclear  power station. It’s not the first time insects have been found to be affected by radiation. Which begs the question what would survive a bad leak from a power station unscathed?