Japan: citizen science vs nuclear crisis


In a barn near Fukushima’s exclusion zone, farmers mix organic fertilisers, looking for recipes to protect their crops from radiation. In the backroom of a gift-shop, local volunteers use sophisticated equipment to measure levels of radioactivity in food. The crisis in Fukushima number one nuclear plant continues to unfold, and science lacks answers to key questions about the disaster's effects on health. Now Fukushima’s ordinary citizens are taking science into their own hands, helping to unravel mysteries that experts failed to solve. Their experiments are shifting understandings of radiation and health, and of the relationship between science and society.

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