Chernobyl, three decades on

The Chernobyl disaster struck 30 years ago today. The devastating radiation spill created a huge radio-ecological laboratory where scientists have been studying the effects of radiation on free-living organisms since 2000. In addition to cataloging a range of harmful effects that even low doses of radiation have on life, the scientists recently published a meta-analysis examining how a specific pathway, oxidative stress, is a key component of the damage.