The Stewards of Chernobyl

ABOUT AN HOUR AND A HALF PAST midnight on April 26, 1986, an unexpected power surge coursed through a reactor at Ukraine’s Chernobyl power plant.

- —E.R.

The now-famous explosion that ensued unleashed ionizing radiation.

Deaths from radiation poisoning were only the beginning. Hundreds of thousands of workers were involved in the cleanup of contamination, but many of them had no idea that the explosion would warp their genes—and those of their offspring. Now, an international team of researchers led by physician and geneticist Peter Krawitz from the University of Bonn in Germany has revealed how the effects of ionizing radiation can be passed down to the children of those exposed.