Frogs in Chernobyl Turned Black: Here's What This Strange Discovery Means

Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about Chernobyl frogs
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#chernobyl #frogs #melanin

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[bernieanders]

Sticking to the use of terms like “high radiation” and “low radiation” when trying to describe the circumstances experienced by an astronaut in space or by someone living near a place like Fukushima or Chernobyl seems to suggest we are dealing with something that can be described easily by a number on a one-dimensional scale and can be easily compared. It’s more complicated. The astronaut only gets the kind of radiation that is not already blocked by the hull of the spaceship, and this will penetrate the astronaut, entering through the skin, evenly distributed over time and evenly distributed over their body. Whereas, when you live near Chernobyl, you get radiation entering through your skin (quite similar to the astronaut) and, additionally, you are breathing in and swallowing radiating isotopes, that normally wouldn’t be part of our environment throughout human (and not only human) evolution. Those isotopes come with your air, your food, your water. They can accumulate in your organs, your muscles, your bones, your brain and continue to radiate your body from the inside, even when you leave the area and live the rest of your life in a “save” place. You might have a highly radiating dust particle in your lungs, spot-wise strongly effecting the adjacent lung cells, which could lead to cancer, to describe one possible effect.

[Biggvs_dickvs]

they're turning the fricking frogs black!

[alden]

I immediately thought of the protective value of melanin in mammal skin. I've also heard of some organisms grow small, dense hair/fur, for the same purpose. Fascinating!

[AceSpadeThePikachu]

I'm pleasantly surprised that this comment section hasn't been flooded with unintelligent troll comments or political rants considering the subject matter. Just goes to show how good you are at presenting the facts in a way that gives people like that nothing to work with. If only more comment sections could be as civilized as yours.

[Everhard]

I live in Texas and we have those tree frogs and i even used to keep them as pets as a child. They do turn dark when they are stressed. Not sure if the same species, but it would not surprise me if the eastern tree frog can change their color as well. Though the texas frogs usually only get a dark grey color at most. That black frog looks amazing.

[TheRedMiners]

So it might actually be better/safer for a team of black astronauts to go on the Mars missions as they are better adapted and protected against the radiation there?

[Otokichi]

I recall Jeremy Wade's fishing expedition to one of the cooling ponds at the Chernobyl power plant. The black Wels Catfish that he caught was smaller than expected. It's liver was damaged and it's growth had been stunted by the radiation-contaminated water. The preponderance of black frogs vs. green frogs, sound a bit like the British tree moths of the Industrial Revolution. With soot/smoke from coal-fired power plants and factories blackening the tree trunks, the previously rare black tree moth population numbers rose. The previously well camouflaged speckled/white moths became easily seen by predatory birds against dark/black tree trunks. Is something like that happening in Chernobyl or is it something else?

[brick]

I've been to Pripyat, a few years ago. I've lived in those Soviet era blocks, it looked pretty much like the _osiedle_ (estate) where I lived in Poland, right down to the playground equipment. Except it was empty, it was very eerie. It was like my home after the apocalypse, and I suppose for the people who lived there it was pretty much. I live only a few km from Ukraine, there but for the grace of God and the wind was me.

Reminds me of the peppered moth case. It refers to how, during the 19th century, a species of moth turned from white to black, because the white trees they used to camouflage on became dark as the soot generated by the brittish industrial revolution covered them. Evolution at play

[nilo]

Thank you Anton for making this wonderful episode today !

[pedrovergara]

So this would imply that people with darker skin tones would be better protected against other forms of radiation, not just UV light.

That would be a very interesting discovery.

[Alondro]

This backs up a study done some years ago which demonstrated that moderate radiation exposure eventually led to LESS cancer in test animals, as they drastically upregulated their DNA repair proteins and developed new protective mechanisms to reduce DNA damage.

[josephc]

Fascinating story Anton. Adaptability to a changing environment is a very important part of this type of research!!! Thanks for your posting Wonderful person.

[egaaronp]

I have been following your channel for a is the 1st time I have understood!

[Taomantom]

Love your dry wit my friend. Great research as always!

[PoshMurder]

Incredibly informative, thank you! I'm excited about what the future holds, in regards to these sorts of discoveries and their implementations.

[Psi]

Yeah, there's so much we still don't know about the human body.
It would not surprise me at all if the human body can adapt very well to increased radiation when it's a gradual exposure. but just gets overwhelmed when it happens all at once.

[steelgreyed]

I'm gotta say this is the best if not funniest thing you've given us so far. All my life in biology, Biologists in general have downplayed amphibians as the first to die "in mass" if anything so much as blinks the wrong way environmentally. Acidic water? Extinction. Alkaline water? Extinction. Less water? Extinction. Bad air? Extinction. Too hot? Extinction. Too cold? Extinction. Too much salt? Extinction. Nuclear fallout? Turns black.
"Wait what?"

[MaryAnnNytowl]

"This is a frog, I think." _~giggles~_ You certainly had a lot of fun with this one, didn't you? With that, and with the positioning of the background images, it had me grinning more than I've grinned for quote awhile! Oh, and that was a spectacular ISS hat you had, there, I must say! 😉 😄 😆 😂 Never stop being you, Anton – you Wonderful Person, you! ❤️❤️

[Meetmountain]

This reminds me of an old podcast i heard years ago. In this podcast a scientist proposed the idea that radiationprotection in spaceflight might be achieved by a thick melaninlayer in the hull.