Bikini Atoll is a small group of islands in the Marshall Islands. 70 years ago, when the cold war was heating up just after WWII, Bikini Atoll was bombarded with 23 nuclear warheads tested over a period of nine years. Scientist from Stanford University have returned to study what happens after a long-term radiation exposure like that.
Bikini Atoll.
Their results were amazing. Bikini Atoll is a flourishing place with corals, crabs, schools of large fish, and sharks. Humans and many other animals exposed to radiation often develop DNA mutations in fast-dividing tissues that can result in cancer. Yet somehow, fast-growing corals in Bikini Atoll appear unharmed by the high levels of radiation found there.
Stephen Palumbi collects samples of this giant coral.
The researchers will sequence the DNA of the corals to find something in their DNA that can explain why they live so well under these extreme circumstances. Stephen Palumbi, the Harold A. Miller Professor of Marine Science at Stanford, said "By understanding how corals could have recolonized the radiation-filled bomb craters, maybe we can discover something new about keeping DNA intact."
Radiation exposure often causes DNA mutations which then can cause fast dividing cells to proliferate. Perhaps research in these corals could result in new opportunities in curing cancer.
What happens on cellular level when radiation reaches our cells.
Even though these results are amazing, the effects of the radiation are still visible. Their expedition started off chasing a shark which they believed had a missing second dorsal fin, probably because of radiation-caused mutations.
"We should never forget what we did to Bikini Atoll and its people," López said (the project’s lead). "We should learn everything we can from it, even things we would have never have thought of before."
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Source:
NASA - NASA Landsat satellite image GeoTIFF archive
https://phys.org/news/2017-06-corals-re-colonized-bikini-atoll-nuclear.html
https://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/health/case_studies/radiation_cance.html
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