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Michael Marshall

Watch a slideshow of Hesse-Honegger's watercolours

No one wants to live too close to a source of artificial radiation, not even insects. Cornelia Hesse-Honegger has spent 20 years travelling around the world, mostly in Europe, capturing and studying over 16,000 insects, many living in the vicinity of nuclear power stations, or other artificial sources of radiation. Her conclusion, not surprisingly, is that exposure to radiation increases the chances of deformity.

She made particularly detailed studies of the regions worst hit by the Chernobyl radioactive cloud: the south of Sweden and the Ticino canton in Switzerland. Drawing on her skills as a scientific illustrator, she made to-scale watercolour paintings of many of her specimens, illustrating deformities such as misshapen wings and stunted feelers.

Journal reference: Chemistry and Biodiversity, vol 5, issue 4, p 499