Chernobyl is the facility that affected whole eastern europe. I remember as a little kid the rain, constant rain and my mother giving me jodine. they left there enormous number of wastes that are not cleaned and may still affect europe. I saw some really horror scenes. See some of them:

I think this is a small pig
I dont know what

This is ridiculous. I photograph bugs all the time and see all kinds of 'mutations' and they aren't caused by nuclear radiation. They are caused by basic birth defects and the rigors of the environment (birds nipping at bugs, etc).

The level of radiation released in Chernobyl could cause structural mutations and perhaps a few of her drawings from this area are legitimate. The amount released in Three Mile Island could not. Not even close.

Peach Bottom? Get real.

Nuclear power plants are a very clean in the sense that all of the 'pollution' is kept on the premises. An entire year's worth of 'waste' to power 100,000 homes is smaller than your living room. Compare that with coal, oil, or gas which just sends it all up the stack into the air. If we reprocessed fuel like the French do, that small amount would be again reduced more than 90%.

The tiny releases that nuclear power plants do release (mostly tritium), are always blown out of proportion by activists when compared to local background radiation. Remember, your own natural radioactivity adds to the annual doseage of the person sleeping next to you. Perhaps we should all sleep alone?

Remember, the industry that contributes the most radioactive material into our environment is coal. Coal contains traces amounts of Uranium, Radium, Thorium, etc. When you burn it, it goes up and out. Small traces don't seem like much except you burn millions of tons a year.

I won't even get started on the evidence for radiation hormesis (that there is an amount of radiation exposure that activates cellular repair mechanisms and improves health).

Lastly, these are artistic interpretations of the bugs. I love to believe she is 100% faithful, but a photograph might show more clearly that many of those 'deformities' are the result of age, running from predators, etc.

This is an interesting art project but as a scientific experiments - there's no control sample. ie: as #2 said, you might find the same number of mutant bugs anywhere.

Oops! I take it all back - I just found one of her scientific publications:

Chem Biodivers. 2008 Apr;5(4):499-539.
Malformation of true bug (heteroptera): a phenotype field study on the possible
influence of artificial low-level radioactivity.
Hesse-Honegger C, Wallimann P.
The results of extensive field studies on the malformation of Western European
true bugs (Heteroptera) are reviewed. More than 16,000 individuals were collected over two decades, and subjected to detailed visual inspection. Various types of disturbances were found and illustrated in detail. Depending on country, region, as well as local influences, severe disturbances and high degrees of malformation were noticed, especially in the sphere of nuclear-power installations in Switzerland (Aargau), France (La Hague), and Germany (Gundremmingen). Malformation reached values as high as 22 and 30% for morphological (MD) and total disturbance (TD), respectively. This is far above the values expected for natural populations (ca. 1%) or those determined for true bugs living in biotopes considered as relatively 'intact' (1-3%). A detailed chi-square test of the malformation data obtained for 650 true bugs from 13 collection sites near the nuclear-reprocessing plant La Hague showed a highly significant correlation (p=0.003) between malformation and wind exposure/local topography. Similar observations were made for other study sites. Currently, our data are best rationalized by assuming a direct influence between the release of anthropogenic radionuclides such as tritium ((3)H), carbon-14 ((14)C), or iodine-131 ((131)I),
constantly emitted by nuclear-power and nuclear-reprocessing plants, as well as by Chernobyl and bomb-testing fallout, which is rich in caesium-137 ((137)Cs) and other long-lived noxious isotopes that have entered the food chain. The present work supports the growing evidence that low-level radiation, especially in the form of randomly scattered 'hot' alpha- and beta-particles, mainly transported via aerosols, puts a heavy burden on the biosphere in general, and on true bugs in particular. These insects could, thus, serve as sensitive 'bio-indicators' for future studies.

It's interesting to see these physical mutations whether caused by radiation, birth defect, or rapid evolution. And to have them documented in such a tasteful, artistic way, it's a throwback to a time when naturalists, scientist, and artists, were the same.

@4 TheUrbanNaturalist,
I keep hoping you'll see these reminders from your friendly fellow BoingBoingers. You've just ensured I'll never visit your blog, because you're ignoring Mom's rules!

Q. Something has happened to the link back to my website that I put at the bottom of my comment.

A. There's an answer to this problem: please don't put links in your comments that aren't relevant to the entry. We'll just have to remove them. Instead, put a link to your site in your user profile.

I'm glad you guys are all over the weakness of the argument that these are mutant bugs resulting from radation.

So many of the deformities seen her are "missing sections", many times at the extremities. Insects are fragile, with snappable exoskeletons, and lose bits all the time. Look around in any garage and you can find accumulations of bug bits.

As art, though, I find these quite beautiful.

the argument may have weaknesses, that does not dismiss it.

Hi,

Art is what mostly separates us from the other species and besides its aesthetical side, it can also be used to make us aware of what is going around and educate us.
From my point of view, not only the artist wants to show the ability that insects and other bugs have to provide interesting works of art, but also to alert us about the referred situation as for future ones that may happen.

Kind regards,

José

There are lots of areas of the world that have much, much higher natural background radiation than "nuclear power installations" (as mentioned in #3). The bugs have done just fine in those spots for millions of years.

Saying "radiation around Chernobyl and other nuclear plants" is kind of like saying "volcanic activity around Mt. St. Helens and other mountains."

@Tenn

Sorry Tenn, didn't know about 'Mom's Rules.' It won't happen again!

Hmmm, Why do you need insects for biomonitoring radioactivity around an accident site when you can just count the tumors on the local human population?

Insect chitin is actually pretty darn sturdy. Pinned, in collections, they can outlast the collectors who pinned them, the cabinets in which they are stored, and even the pins impaling them.

I can't say much about the cause of the mutations, if these are appearing at the expected rate for such abnormalities, but these illustrations are not of "breakage".

The segment count of the antennae in the illustration above is different. It's not a random thing, how many segments a given part of an insect has. Things like antennal or tarsal (one of the leg sections)segment counts are used as taxonomic characters for that very reason. The twisted thoracic and abdominal segments look like a developmental deformity, not an injury, likewise the wingpads and metanotum. Was it the metanotum? I'll have to go back and look. Just can resist throwing those entomological anatomical terms around. I've paid my dues, keying out the critter until I thought my eyeballs would fall out on the bench. Not to say I'm stellar at it, but I've logged the hours.

The only one that didn't look to me like a mutation was the fly. I think it is entirely possible that the artist just wasn't familiar with your garden-variety (or house, come to think of it) dipteran aristate antenna. The text describes them as "feelers". Yeesh.

- Pip (who just reads along and nods in pretend understanding when you all start doing your leet intrawebs banter, but who is going to so totally jump on the invertebrate nerd deal)

Oh, and I really like the water colors.

While radiation from nuclear plants is far far safer than most people make it out to be, there are plenty of other effects that we shouldn't discount. People who fear depleted uranium because of radiation are complete morons; people who fear depleted uranium because of its toxicity may have a point. There are plently of rare chemicals that go into maintaining a nuclear reactor.

Personally, I highly doubt that the 22% disturbances can all be attributed to radiation -- you simply wouldn't see anything that high without smaller effects seen in larger creatures, e.g. rodents, in the area. That given, there are likely chemical explanations if those numbers are right.

There is no nuclear reactor in Gysinge!
I think the reason the artist was there in 1987 was because that part of Sweden received a lot of radioactive particles from contaminated rain clouds right after the Chernobyl Disaster.
The disaster was in fact discovered by workers at Forsmark, a Swedish nuclear power plant just 90 km east of Gysinge, when they found unusually high levels of radioactive particles in there clothes.

What is the rate of mutation around coal-fired power plants? I remember reading somewhere that coal plants release more radioactive waste than nuclear plants, since radioactive isotopes occur naturally in coal seams.

@TheUrbanNaturalist 11,
Sweet! We were trying to get ahold of you there for a while. Thanks for the fix man!

"After the accident many people suffered from a kind of sunburn, lost their hair and teeth, and died many years later of cancer."

This comment from the artist refers to "Three Mile Island" and I think it's blown out of proportion.

Wait...My father is losing his hair and teeth. Oh wait, he's 70.

Change "of" to "by" in the title and then you'd have some BIG news!

@ seadigs:

After reading all of this your comment made me chortle right out loud.

With the exception of Chernobyl, there is so little external release of radioactive materials at nuclear facilities as to be negligible -- mostly in the form of radioactive Xenon and other gases, or minute amounts of tritium quickly diluted into larger water supplies -- that the idea of finding huge populations of mutant insects is preposterous, it doesn't even pass the laugh test.

Lately BB seems to be in the habit of spreading pseudoscience or outright misinformation about civilian nuclear power.

Woolie, the Boingers don't make it up. It's funny to find myself nostalgic for an older internet where most of the liars were amateurs.

Amuderick, there's no line below which additional radiation is "safe". All incremental increase causes incremental damage.

Could you contrive to sound a little less practiced at that rant? I know you've been here a while and posted in lots of threads, but it worries me just a tad.

Urban Naturalist: Good. It's tedious having to remove them.

Tenn, thanks for being helpful.

And hey, when did I get nicknamed "Mom"? Cheez. I'm only slightly older than dirt.

Pipenta: maybe because there's a lot of them?

Mom, I think I saw Tak-kun and Ant doing it. I'm this close to naming Antinous Uncle Ant, since I've stolen his diminuitive for Takuan and I've begun calling Karney Carny. Within time, no one will know when Tenn is speaking to them, because she has a habit of nicknames.

I started referring to you as 'Mom' when I was trying to be a little less obvious in my discussions with Takuan about setting someone up for disciplinary action. You know, like spies referring to 'Aunt Martha' when they're really talking about a suitcase nuke. I could scarcely confuse you with my mother since you're only two years older than me and you've never bounced a quarter on my bed to see if my hospital corners are tight.

Antinous, never become a spy. Your jargon is transparent.

Your mother sounds frightening.

ye'll always be lass to me.....

"On October 10, 1957, the graphite core of a British nuclear reactor at Windscale, Cumbria, caught fire, releasing substantial amounts of radioactive contamination into the surrounding area. The event, known as the Windscale fire, was considered the world's worst reactor accident until the Three Mile Island accident in 1979. Both incidents were dwarfed by the magnitude of the Chernobyl disaster in 1986."

Your jargon is transparent.

To the contrary, simplicity is the fundament of successful clandestine activity. I have kept many people out of jail by yelling "The bus is coming!©" at the top of my lungs.

Antinous, I assume you are familiar with definition #2 below (from Websters).

1: an underlying ground, theory, or principle
2 a: buttocks b: anus
3: the part of a land surface that has not been altered by human activities

Would I miss a double entendre?

No, you would not. I salute you sir. :)