4 ms·

I have a joke t-shirt that says Hanford on it, with cartoon family that has a two-headed dog, and the skeletons glow in the dark.

jansan 3y ago
Where does that meme with mutations from radioactivity come from? Was it propaganda from the anti nuclear power lobby or has something like this actually been observed after the expossure to radiation?
- blueprint 3y ago
  radioactivity causes mutations in germ cell dna which causes more obviously mutated offspring, but just the same, enough radioactivity would change enough of your cells' dna to see something. it's just that it would probably be cancer and burns.
- ofalkaed 3y ago
  It goes back to at least the 50s, Japan had a thing for giant mutant monsters resulting from the bombs, Godzilla and all that fun stuff. I have never encountered anyone using mutants as a talking point for an anti-nuclear agenda.
  - nottorp 3y ago
    And then it devolved into Hollywood genetics. You know, when something rewrites your genetic code and as a result you grow an extra head in a 30 second scene.
  - jansan 3y ago
    There was quite a popular Austrian band who had some political songs, and one was about a man living near a nuclear power plant. Due do an accident at the power plant their son had six ears, mushrooms on the head, glowed in the dark, etc. That is the only example that I can come up with right now, but I have heard risk of mutations mentioned as a result of nuclear energy over and over again. Here is the song (German): https://www.verunsicherung.de/diskografie/songs/burli.html https://www.verunsicherung.de/diskografie/songs/burli.html
    - ofalkaed 3y ago
      That is absurdism, a way to make the topic more suitable as entertainment. They are not being literal.
      - jansan 3y ago
        Fair enough, but how about "documentaries" like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uQLsDrs-74&t=9s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uQLsDrs-74&t=9s I am not willing to spend a lot of thime on this, but from first glance I can see that they are misusing a mutant deer from Georgia/US (1:10 into the video) for their narrative. Who knows if any of the images there are actually from Chernobyl. And that video has 2.6 million views.
        ofalkaed 3y ago
        The images at the start are meant to shock and contrast the truths that they go on to explore, context is import. The rest of that video goes on to talk about how wildlife is now thriving in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, that the mutations can only be seen on the genetic level and that those mutations are part of what is allowing wildlife to thrive there. They are not using mutation as anti-nuclear propaganda, they are exploring much larger and more nuanced topics. You really should have watched the video before posting instead of just finding some propaganda to repeat. I have no doubt you can find an example which will "prove" you right, but it will take you a fair amount of digging most likely and is about as common those heavily mutated births caused by radiation exposure.
- dcminter 3y ago
  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Joseph_Muller https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Joseph_Muller
- rsynnott 3y ago
  Where did you think red grapefruits came from? It is very much a thing, and done deliberately, though it's a lot more prosaic than depicted in movies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_gardening https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_gardening
- aranchelk 3y ago
  I’ve been seeing memes about genetic mutations causing cancer (textbooks, papers, and such) — guessing that’s the anti-mutation lobby.
- seadan83 3y ago
  Ater Chernobyl birth defects in humans significantly increased. Similar in animals. Usually those defects (not an expert,just my understanding) is in bad formation, rather than novel formations [eg, an arm fails to develop properly rather than developing a third arm]
8bitsrule 3y ago
Not a joke to the 'Downwinders' who live east of Hanford.

jansan 3y ago

Where does that meme with mutations from radioactivity come from? Was it propaganda from the anti nuclear power lobby or has something like this actually been observed after the expossure to radiation?

blueprint 3y ago
radioactivity causes mutations in germ cell dna which causes more obviously mutated offspring, but just the same, enough radioactivity would change enough of your cells' dna to see something. it's just that it would probably be cancer and burns.
ofalkaed 3y ago
It goes back to at least the 50s, Japan had a thing for giant mutant monsters resulting from the bombs, Godzilla and all that fun stuff. I have never encountered anyone using mutants as a talking point for an anti-nuclear agenda.
- nottorp 3y ago
  And then it devolved into Hollywood genetics. You know, when something rewrites your genetic code and as a result you grow an extra head in a 30 second scene.
- jansan 3y ago
  There was quite a popular Austrian band who had some political songs, and one was about a man living near a nuclear power plant. Due do an accident at the power plant their son had six ears, mushrooms on the head, glowed in the dark, etc. That is the only example that I can come up with right now, but I have heard risk of mutations mentioned as a result of nuclear energy over and over again. Here is the song (German): https://www.verunsicherung.de/diskografie/songs/burli.html https://www.verunsicherung.de/diskografie/songs/burli.html
  - ofalkaed 3y ago
    That is absurdism, a way to make the topic more suitable as entertainment. They are not being literal.
    - jansan 3y ago
      Fair enough, but how about "documentaries" like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uQLsDrs-74&t=9s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uQLsDrs-74&t=9s I am not willing to spend a lot of thime on this, but from first glance I can see that they are misusing a mutant deer from Georgia/US (1:10 into the video) for their narrative. Who knows if any of the images there are actually from Chernobyl. And that video has 2.6 million views.
      - ofalkaed 3y ago
        The images at the start are meant to shock and contrast the truths that they go on to explore, context is import. The rest of that video goes on to talk about how wildlife is now thriving in the Chernobyl exclusion zone, that the mutations can only be seen on the genetic level and that those mutations are part of what is allowing wildlife to thrive there. They are not using mutation as anti-nuclear propaganda, they are exploring much larger and more nuanced topics. You really should have watched the video before posting instead of just finding some propaganda to repeat. I have no doubt you can find an example which will "prove" you right, but it will take you a fair amount of digging most likely and is about as common those heavily mutated births caused by radiation exposure.
dcminter 3y ago
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Joseph_Muller https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hermann_Joseph_Muller
rsynnott 3y ago
Where did you think red grapefruits came from? It is very much a thing, and done deliberately, though it's a lot more prosaic than depicted in movies: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_gardening https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_gardening
aranchelk 3y ago
I’ve been seeing memes about genetic mutations causing cancer (textbooks, papers, and such) — guessing that’s the anti-mutation lobby.
seadan83 3y ago
Ater Chernobyl birth defects in humans significantly increased. Similar in animals. Usually those defects (not an expert,just my understanding) is in bad formation, rather than novel formations [eg, an arm fails to develop properly rather than developing a third arm]

8bitsrule 3y ago

Not a joke to the 'Downwinders' who live east of Hanford.