BACKGROUND The Chernobyl accident represents a long-term experiment on the effects of exposure to ionizing radiation at the ecosystem level. Though studies of these effects on plants and animals are abundant, the study of how Chernobyl radiation levels affect prokaryotic and eukaryotic microbial communities is practically non-existent, except for a few reports on human pathogens or soil microor...

This commentary summarizes the presentations and discussions from the 2016 Gilbert W. Beebe symposium "30 years after the Chernobyl accident: Current and future studies on radiation health effects." The symposium was hosted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (the National Academies). The symposium focused on the health consequences of the Chernobyl accident, lookin...

On April 26, 1986, at 1:23 a.m., a chain reaction occurred in the Chernobyl reactor, creating explosions that blew off the reactor’s heavy steel and concrete lid. From Chernobyl in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (now in the Ukraine), radiation spread across Europe in perhaps the most catastrophic industrial event in the planet’s history. Radioactive particles remained suspended ...

The Chernobyl accident of 1986 exposed most if not all of Europe to a blanket of radiation, creating a melting pot of human exposure sequelae that is still showing up in our medical clinics today. In our particular clinic, a young woman of 29 years presented with most of her extended family in attendance. The young woman was born and raised in northern Italy until the age of seven when she left...

The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident resulted in radiation exposures throughout much of Europe, with the highest exposures within the city of Pripyat, Ukraine, where the accident occurred. We report a woman who was exposed to the Chernobyl accident at age 13. Beginning in her early thirties, she experienced several years of upper abdominal pain that became progressively more severe. At age 35, s...

A double clock or jetlag mechanism is unlikely to be involved in detection of east-west displacements in a long-distance avian migrant. (2009). Visual but not trigeminal mediation of magnetic compass information in a migratory bird. Age-dependent orientation to magnetically-simulated geographic displacements in migratory Australian silvereyes (Zosterops l. lateralis). Wilson J. (2010). Magnetic...

Stable-isotope profiles of feathers can reveal the location or habitat used by individual birds during the molting period. Heterogeneity in isotope profiles will reflect heterogeneity in molt locations, but also heterogeneity in breeding locations, because spatial heterogeneity in molt locations will be congruent with spatial heterogeneity in breeding locations in species with high connectivity...

BACKGROUND The Chernobyl Childhood Illness Program (CCIP) was a humanitarian assistance effort funded by the United States Congress. Its purpose was to assist the Ukrainian Government to identify and treat adolescents who developed mental and physical problems following their exposure as young children to Chernobyl radiation. Thirteen years after the Chernobyl nuclear plant accident in 1986, th...

BACKGROUND, AIM, AND SCOPE Ever since the discovery of the mutagenic properties of ionizing radiation, the possibility of birth sex odds shifts in exposed human populations was considered in the scientific community. Positive evidence, however weak, was obtained after the atomic bombing of Japan. We previously investigated trends in the sex odds before and after the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plan...