Seventeen months after the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, Japanese scientists have found severe genetic abnormalities in butterflies exposed to radiation from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. Lead researcher Joji Otaki of the University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa, told BBC News that the results were unexpected:

"It has been believed that insects are very resistant to radiation," said lead researcher Joji Otaki from the University of the Ryukyus, Okinawa.

The only question remaining is whether the Japanese people will prove resistant to the dangerous mutant insects the radiation creates:

[Slogtip Charles]