Meet Pando, Pando is great. He looks like a forest, but is actually one organism. All his tree trunks have the same DNA, and grow from a single root system.
The American aspen (not to be confused with European
Wolves help forests grow, old ladies save bumblebees, and whales increase the fish population (despite also eating them). The connections between various species are subtle and often surprising. Even humans, at some point during evolution, merged with certain bacteria and viruses that are intimately assimilated within our bodies today.
Ozyorsk is a city in Chelyabinsk Oblast in Russia, where plutonium factories used to operate. Radioactive particles are still present in the water and earth to this day. The locals often complained about chronic pain and tiredness as well as problems with their circulation, digestion, and immune systems. However, doctors failed to find any explicit links between the ailments and radiation; they didn’t detect any cancerous changes typically caused by radioactivity. And because the symptoms didn’t fit the diagnostic criteria, patients were sent away feeling neglected and betrayed.
