According to Ukrainian scientists Gennady Polikarpov and Victoria Tsytsugina from the Institute of Biology of the Southern Seas in Sevastopol, the worms may have changed their sexual behaviour to increase their chances of survival. Sexual reproduction allows natural selection to promote genes that offer better protection from radiation damage, and “the resistance of populations as a whole will be increased”, Polikarpov suggests. Their work is published in the Journal of Environmental Radioactivity (vol 66, p 141).

All is not bliss in the romantic glow of the moonlight, er, radioactive waste in these Chernobyl-kissed pools of love, however. A third lake worm species, Dero obtusa, showed double the rate of asexual reproduction in the polluted lake.