Anyone know of any wildlife near a nucular(sic) facility that seem to be--genetically altered? nt

[raccoon]

[temporary311]

1. You mean like this?

[img][/img]

[AndyA]

2. You mean like Ann Coulter and Sean Hannity? n/t

[DreamGypsy]

3. Perhaps an extreme example...

...from The National Geographic: Animals Inherit Mixed Legacy at Chernobyl:

Timothy Mousseau, a biological scientist, has been studying bird populations in Chernobyl along with collaborator Anders Møller of Paris-Sud University in Orsay, France, for more than a decade. In one study, Mousseau found that barn swallows living in heavily contaminated areas had much higher rates of abnormalities--ranging from partial albinism (b, c, d), deformed beaks (e, f), and bent or asymmetrical tail feathers (h, i). Later studies found that the contaminated areas also had lower biodiversity, with half the species of birds found in "clean" areas, lower populations (reduced by as much as 60 percent), and that birds living in the Chernobyl area had smaller brains.

"We really weren't expecting to find anything," Mousseau said of his and Møller's first formal trip to Chernobyl in 2000. "The conventional wisdom had been, until recently, that there were very few consequences."

On the other hand, Mousseau admits that some birds have thrived: drab, non-migratory birds seem to be doing very well, "possibly because they have no competitors," he said. These birds don't use up their carotenoids, which are powerful antioxidants, to create colorful plumage, and they don't need to spend extra energy on long migrations, so their immune systems may be stronger, Mousseau theorized.

The article also reports this:

Swiftly after the disaster, some 50,000 cattle and 13,000 pigs were relocated along with human inhabitants rom the Chernobyl exclusion zone. Due to the difficulties in caring for the animals and finding food in the areas to which they had been moved, most of the relocated animals were slaughtered. According to a 2006 report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a UN body that seeks to promote peaceful use of nuclear technology, though, that may have been Chernobyl’s most lasting effect on agricultural animals. No higher incidence of birth defects was observed in cows or pigs from nearby contaminated areas, even just a few years after the accident.

[DetlefK]

4. mushroom evolved resistance to gamma-radiation:

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0025092
This mushroom evolved a type of melanin-molecule (the stuff that makes your skin pink/brown/black) that shields the rest of the organism from gamma-radiation.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1755-148X.2007.00430.x/abstract;jsessionid=6343DADDD8068153220A2DCB98ECAF77.d03t03?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0007229
Trial and error to use melanins for cellular protection against radioactivity.

http://www.google.de/patents?hl=de&lr=&vid=USPATAPP11732130&id=CYigAAAAEBAJ&oi=fnd&dq=Protection+of+Melanized+Cryptococcus+neoformans+from+Lethal+Dose+Gamma+Irradiation+Involves+Changes+in+Melanin%27s+Chemical+Structure+and+Paramagnetism&printsec=abstract#v=onepage&q&f=false
And a patent based on this.

[thecrow]

5. I remember reading a bit about it after Three Mile Island

in Pennsylvania, a couple counties away. Stuff like weirdly mutated vegetation, and some farm animal abnormalities. I doubt it got much national attention.