☢️ 40 years later: how Chernobyl wildlife has evolved to survive ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌
The Conversation

In the 1970s, physicists drew up an elegant blueprint to explain our existence. The Standard Model classifies the tiny building blocks everything is made of and three of nature’s four fundamental forces. Despite its success, there are things the theory can’t explain: gravity, dark matter and dark energy. This meant the Standard Model must be incomplete.

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) was built to find cracks in the Standard Model, but it has remained remarkably solid. Now, physicists seem to be on the verge of an amazing discovery. An experiment at the LHC appears to show particles behaving in a way that disagrees with the Standard Model. If the results stand up to scrutiny, it could lead researchers to a deeper understanding of the universe.

Meanwhile, the idea that eating fruit could be driving lung cancer in young people sounds bizarre. A cancer researcher looks into this recent suggestion and recommends that we don’t change our eating habits.

Forty years on from Chernobyl, the world’s worst civilian nuclear accident, wildlife is thriving in the exclusion zone. Wolves, foxes, lynx and elk have all increased in number without people around. It illustrates how ecosystems can respond and still flourish when the usual rules do not apply.

Paul Rincon

Commissioning Editor, Science, Technology and Business

The LHCb experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. CERN

Our Large Hadron Collider results hint at undiscovered physics

William Barter, University of Edinburgh; Mark Smith, Imperial College London

The behaviour of sub-atomic particles in the LHC seems to disagree with the Standard Model.

Deadly? Not likely. New Africa/Shutterstock.com

Eating fruit is linked to lung cancer? Here’s what you need to know about that new study

Justin Stebbing, Anglia Ruskin University

A small conference study sparked headlines linking fruit to lung cancer. Here’s why the science tells a very different story.

Wikimedia

40 years on from the disaster, why there are foxes, bears and bison again around Chernobyl

Nick Dunn, Lancaster University

Endangered species are making their home in a massive wild zone around the derelict Chernobyl nuclear plant.

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