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Radiation and evolution 核辐射与进化 Surviving fallout. 辐射尘中 幸免于难。 Birds can evolve to cope with the lingering effects of nuclear incidents. 鸟类能够通过进化应对核事故的残余影响。 THE disaster last year at the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, caused by anearthquake and tsunami, scored seven on the International Nuclear and Radiological EventScale . No worse rating exists. Radiation is harmful to living things, yet the long-termeffects of persistently high levels of background radiation on ecosystems are poorlyunderstood.With this in mind, a team led by Timothy Mousseau of the University of SouthCarolina and Anders Moller of the University of Paris-Sud set out to compare bird speciesdwelling near the Fukushima plant with those living at the site of another nuclear incidentthat scored a seven on the INES: the Ukrainian town of Chernobyl, where disaster struck in1986. Remarkably, they found that some species seem to develop a tolerance forradioactivity over time. 去年，地震和海啸引发了福岛第一原子能发电站核泄漏事故，在国际核与辐射事件等级标准中被评为第七级;没有比这情况还糟的分级了。核辐射对生物有害，而长时间高水平的本底辐射对生态系统有何影响，人们还知之甚少。为了研究这个问题，南卡罗莱纳大学的Timothy Mousseau和巴黎第十一大学的Anders Moller率团队着手比较在两个INES七级事故事发地附近栖息的鸟类种群。结果出人意料。他们发现随着时间迁移，似乎有些鸟类发展出了对核辐射的耐受力。 | 
