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Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant suffered three meltdowns last year. Paired with hydrogen explosions, these meltdowns allowed radioactive material to escape. So what's the effect on the environment and human health?
去年日本福岛第一核电站遭遇三次塌方事故。这次事件伴随着氢气爆炸，导致放射性物质泄漏。那么这次事件对环境和人类健康会造成什么影响呢？
The first clues come from what's called the pale grass blue butterfly. This delicate insect's wings change color and pattern in response to environmental changes.
第一条线索来自于 pale grass blue butterfly。由于环境变化，这些脆弱的蝴蝶发生了变异，翅膀的颜色和图案均改变了。
The offspring of female butterflies caught in the Fukushima region six months after the meltdowns sported such color-pattern changes, as well as deformed legs, antennae, wings and even eyes. The deformities persisted and got worse in the second generation of offspring as well.
核泄漏事故六个月后，在福岛附近捕捉的雌性蝴蝶的后代延续了这种颜色和图案变化，同时腿部，触角，翅膀，甚至是眼睛出现变形。这种变异不仅遗传给第二代，而且情况变得更糟。
The same deformities were found in butterflies collected from the wild. And the researchers induced similar effects by exposing normal butterflies to radiation from cesium particles like those that escaped Fukushima Daiichi. The research is in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.
在野外收集到的蝴蝶也出现了相同的变异特征。研究人员通过将蝴蝶暴露在铯颗粒的辐射下来诱发类似的效果。在福岛核电站泄漏的放射材料就包括铯颗粒。这项研究发表在《自然科学报告》期刊上。
As for people, more than 3,000 individuals from a town 23 kilometers north of the stricken nuclear plant also bore detectable levels of radioactive cesium in their bodies. Their total dose of less than one milliSievert is considered safe, and no radiation sickness was observed. But, says a report in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the men, women and children exposed need to be watched for the long-term effects of the radiation—for the rest of their lives.
至于人类，在受损核电站以北23公里的一个镇上，3000多人体内可以检测到放射性铯。总辐射量低于1毫西弗的被视为安全，而且没有观察到任何疾病的症状。但是美国医学会杂志刊登的一篇文章指出，应该长期观察受到辐射影响的男女老少。
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