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 Baby boy boom? Nuclear radiation from power plant leaks like the recent Japan disaster results in millions fewer baby girls born worldwide, according to a study. |
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Nuclear radiation from power plant leaks and bomb tests resulted in millions fewer baby girls born worldwide, according to a new study. Scientists noted these types of atmospheric blasts rather than on-the-ground incidents like Chernobyl, effected birth gender across the globe. Scientists at Helmholtz Zentrum München, Germany, analysed population data from 1975 to 2007 for the U.S. and 39 European countries. There was an increase in the number of baby boys relative to girls in all of the countries from 1964 to 1975. This was the case in many eastern European countries for several years after 1986. Scientists are putting the first spike down to the atomic bomb tests of the 1960s and 1970s where radioactive atoms were blasted into the atmosphere. Air currents caught these atoms and then distributed them around the world. They think the second spike is due to the 1986 Chernobyl disaster in which the reactor exploded in the Ukraine. The effects of Chernobyl were felt locally and no effect was seen in the U.S., probably because it was too far from the disaster to have an effect. 'The closer the country was to Chernobyl, the stronger the effect,' said study co-author Hagen Scherb, a biostatistician at the German Research Center for Environmental Health in Munich. More males were born relative to females in Belarus - the Ukraine's neighbour - than in France. The study is based largely on Cold War-era statistics, but the findings are highly relevant for how gender could be effected after future nuclear disasters. And in the wake of Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident experts are predicting another baby boy boom could be imminent, especially on the U.S. West Coast. Previous radiation experiments on animals may give a clue for the increase in male births. Tests showed that radiation caused damage to the X chromosome in sperm, Dr Scherb said. A human sperm cell contains either an X or Y chromosome, while an egg only has a X chromosome. An XY combination will become a boy, while an XX combination will be a girl. (Read by Renee Haines. Renee Haines is a journalist at the China Daily Website.) (Agencies) |
根据一项新研究，核电站核泄漏事故和炸弹试验释放的放射性物质导致全世界女婴出生数量减少了数百万名。 科学家指出，这种大气中发生的核爆炸（而非切尔诺贝利这种地面发生的核事故）影响了全球范围内出生的婴儿的性别。 德国亥姆霍兹慕尼黑中心的科学家们分析了1975年到2007年间美国和39个欧洲国家的人口数据。 从1964年到1975年，在所有这些国家，男婴的数量相对于女婴数量都增加了。在1986年之后数年间，在许多东欧国家也发生了同样的情况。 科学家认为首当其冲的原因是20世纪60年代和70年代的原子弹试验，原子弹爆炸时放射性原子被释放到大气当中。气流携带着这些放射性原子，将其散布到全世界。 他们认为第二大原因是1986年乌克兰核反应堆发生爆炸的切尔诺贝利核灾难。 切尔诺贝利事故在当地造成了影响，但并没有波及美国，很可能是因为美国离灾难发生地太远了。 这一研究的作者之一哈根•舍布说：“离切尔诺贝利越近的国家，受到的影响越大。”舍布是位于慕尼黑的德国环境与健康研究中心的一位生物统计学家。 在乌克兰的邻国白俄罗斯，男婴相对于女婴的人数比法国多。 该研究主要基于冷战时期的数据，但是有关未来的核灾难将对出生婴儿性别产生影响的研究发现和现在却有很大关联。 专家预测，在日本福岛第一核电站事故之后，将出现又一轮“男婴潮”，尤其是在美国西海岸。 舍布博士称，先前在动物身上做的核辐射实验对于男婴出生率的增高可能会提供一些线索。实验表明核辐射会对精子的X染色体造成损害。 人体精子细胞包含X或Y染色体，而卵子只包含X染色体。XY染色体的结合会生出男孩，而XX染色体的结合会生出女孩。 相关阅读 （中国日报网英语点津 陈丹妮 编辑：冯明惠） |
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Vocabulary: imminent: (especially of something unpleasant) likely to happen very soon（尤指不愉快的事）即将发生的；临近的 chromosome: one of the very small parts like threads in the nuclei(=central parts) of animal and plant cells, that carry the genes（染色体） |
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