The Why Files: Operation Podcast
579: Nuclear Powered Evolution | The Wolves of Chernobyl Reveal Human Potential
Fri, 24 Jan 2025
Scientists discovered something impossible in Chernobyl's radioactive ruins - life is thriving where nothing should survive. Animals aren't just living in lethal radiation zones, they're evolving faster than nature should allow. From Chernobyl to Bikini Atoll, creatures are activating ancient genetic sequences designed to process radiation. These same genes appear in human DNA, raising profound questions about our own origins. The implications stretch from Earth's ancient past to humanity's future among the stars. What we're learning about life in Earth's most radioactive places is changing our understanding of human potential.
Chapter 1: What surprising discovery was made in Chernobyl?
After the Fukushima disaster, animals developed stronger antioxidant systems. They reproduced faster. This happened in just 15 years. How can plants and animals evolve so quickly? Well, they can't. They activated ancient genetic sequences designed to survive radiation, genes that were always there, waiting. And in Earth's most radioactive places, those genes are waking up.
March 1st, 1954, Bikini Atoll, Operation Castle, test Bravo. The military expected a five megaton blast. They got 15. This miscalculation created a blast 1,000 times stronger than Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Uh-oh, someone forgot to carry the one. The fireball reached 20 million degrees Fahrenheit in under a second.
That's 2,000 times hotter than the sun's surface and twice the temperature of the sun's core. The mushroom cloud stretched 25 miles high. The blast carved a crater in the sea floor over a mile wide and 300 feet deep, deep enough for a 30-story building.
Why the hell are you humans still messing with nukes?
I honestly don't know.
It's a good thing the aliens will protect you.
Will they?
Yeah, protect or enslave. We'll find out soon enough.
The explosion vaporized three small islands. The lagoon became a radioactive soup. Wind patterns spread fallout across thousands of miles. Locals suffered radiation sickness and evacuated. Over four years, there were another 22 nuclear tests. Scientists believed nothing could survive this. They were wrong. Researchers found nearly 100 species of fish and coral thriving in radioactive water. What?
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Chapter 2: How did animals evolve after nuclear disasters?
This is how Godzilla was born. Yeah, I don't think... From the depths, journey stories high. Breathes fire, his head in the sky. Godzilla! Godzilla!
Please stop.
Godzilla!
I'm begging you.
Chapter 3: What happened during the Bikini Atoll nuclear tests?
And Katsuki.
The crater left by the nuclear bomb was covered in coral. Vast colonies of it. Then the researchers found the crabs.
Oh, they make a shampoo for that.
No, no, no, no, no. Coconut crabs on the beach. Ah, that makes more sense. These crabs eat radioactive coconuts. The water, soil, and trees contain cesium-137, a radioactive isotope that destroys DNA and causes cancer. Tests showed lethal radiation levels in the crabs, but they're fine. Oh, maybe this explains the crab kit. Yeah, let's stay focused.
This pattern repeats at every nuclear disaster site. Different animals, same response. For some reason, nature knows how to handle radiation. But when did life develop these defenses and why? Well, years later, Chernobyl provided a clue. Deep in Ukraine's radioactive exclusion zone, something strange was happening to the wolves. In 1986, a safety test at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant failed.
The explosion released 400 times more radiation than Hiroshima. The Soviet military gave 100,000 residents hours to evacuate. They established a 1,000 square mile exclusion zone around the reactor. The land was declared dead. Nature disagreed. In 2014, Dr. Kara Love studied wolves in the CEZ. Their blood work revealed genetic changes that defied evolution.
In just 15 generations, the wolves activated specific DNA repair mechanisms. Each generation grew more and more resistant to radiation.
The wolves are exposed to six times the legal safety limit of radiation every day of their lives. Researchers identified the wolves' genetics seemed resilient to increased cancer risk.
But wolves weren't the only animals changing. When Chernobyl was evacuated, people were not allowed to bring their pets. Thousands of cats and dogs were left behind. Most of these animals died from radiation exposure, but not all of them. Studies documented over 800 descendants of the original abandoned dogs living in the exclusion zone.
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Chapter 4: Why are wolves in Chernobyl thriving despite radiation?
What happened to the cats?
Not much research when it's studying the cats. Because nobody cares. Stop it. DNA samples from the Chernobyl dogs show their genetics are so unique that they could be classified as a new species. Other animals adapted differently. Eastern tree frogs are normally bright green. In Chernobyl, they're black. The increased melanin in their skin protects them from radiation.
Birds in the zone develop darker feathers to survive. In 2013, a study revealed that they weren't creating new abilities. They were awakening old ones. And then there's the fungus.
How do you make a cream for that?
No, not that kind.
Hey, what did the mushroom say to the girl he was trying to pick up at the bar?
Will you let me get through this, please?
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Chapter 5: What genetic changes have been observed in Chernobyl animals?
Oh, fine. Go ahead and kill all the fun, guy.
Black fungi in Chernobyl don't just resist radiation, they eat it. They grow toward the reactor core, converting gamma radiation to chemical energy, like plants convert sunlight. NASA tested these fungi on the International Space Station. They processed cosmic radiation in zero gravity. Similar species appeared at other radiation sites.
At Fukushima, fungi activated their radiation processing abilities within hours of exposure. When radiation levels dropped, they returned to normal. Johns Hopkins discovered these fungi adapt to different radiation types, from gamma rays to beta particles. Their genes contain instructions for processing all kinds of radiation. These same genes appear in 50 million year old fungi fossils.
So why did ancient life forms develop protection against radiation? Dr. Lynn Rothschild is an astrobiologist at NASA. She says Earth's atmosphere millions of years ago provided less insulation from cosmic radiation. For life to survive, it would have developed methods to protect itself and then pass them down through DNA. Now, this makes sense. But there's a hiccup.
Cosmic radiation is mostly protons. The fungi have defenses against neutrons, beta particles, and gamma rays. These don't come from space. These come from uranium nuclear reactors.
Hang on, hang on, hang on. What? Humans didn't have nuclear reactors 50 million years ago.
That's true, they didn't.
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Chapter 6: How do fungi adapt to radiation?
So what are you talking about? They found a nuclear reactor from millions of years ago?
No.
Oh.
They found 17 of them.
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In honor of Military Appreciation Month, Verizon thought of a lot of different ways we could show our appreciation. Like rolling out the red carpet. Giving you your own personal marching band. or throwing a bumping shindig. At Verizon, we're doing all that in the form of special military offers.
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Chapter 7: What ancient nuclear reactors were discovered in Gabon?
Chapter 8: What is the connection between ancient life and radiation defense?
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That's why this month only, we're giving military and veteran families a $200 Verizon gift card and a phone on us with a select trade-in and a new line on select unlimited plans. Think of it as our way of flying a squadron of jets overhead while launching fireworks. Now that's what we call a celebration because we're proud to serve you. Visit your local Verizon store to learn more.
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There was a time in Earth's history when radiation was much, much higher. In Gabon, West Africa, scientists discovered evidence of at least 17 natural nuclear reactors that operated 2 billion years ago. The Oklo reactors, as they're called, sustained nuclear fission for hundreds of thousands of years. And these reactors weren't small. Each site produced around 100 kilowatts of power.
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