Posted on 02/11/2020 11:57:35 PM PST by RomanSoldier19
A fungus observed inside Chernobyl is a radiation extremophile that could inspire new technology. Removing radiation and even turning it into energy could help clean disaster sites and enable spaceflight. The fungi use high amounts of melanin to both resist radiation and turn it into energy.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
Scientists have known about this fungus, and similar extremophile organisms that can thrive on radiation, since at least 2007. The variety found in Chernobyl “can decompose radioactive material such as the hot graphite in the remains of the Chernobyl reactor,” Nature said in 2007..
How can this fungus process radiation in this way? Because it has tons of very dark melanin pigment that absorbs radiation and processes it in a harmless way to produce energy. Scientists believe this mechanism could be used to make biomimicking substances that both block radiation from penetrating and turn it into a renewable energy source.
Radiation is not new to nature
https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ancient-nuclear-reactor/
Life finds a way to use everything.
I find it fun and addicting. I am proud to say that it has been probably at least three years since I wasted excessive amounts of time on that particular game. Unfortunately, I am afraid that I will have to continue the cold-Turkey treatment.
If it is consuming radioactive isotopes, it will then just contain those radioactive isotopes. It’s not making them non-radioactive. Still, it’s very cool.
Hard to believe it has been almost 34 years since Chernobyl. That’s beyond one half-life for most of the initial isotopes released (but some of those degrade into isotopes with longer half-lives).
Sauté-ed giant Chernobyl mushrooms over thawed Siberian mammoth steaks!
“does the fungus eat Democrats”
Eventually
The earth is self correcting...
Cool stuff from your links:
Melanin pigments are found in many diverse fungal species, where they serve a variety of functions that promote fitness and cell survival. Melanotic fungi inhabit some of the most extreme habitats on earth such as the damaged nuclear reactor at Chernobyl and the highlands of Antarctica, both of which are high-radiation environments. Melanotic fungi migrate toward radioactive sources, which appear to enhance their growth. This phenomenon, combined with the known capacities of melanin to absorb a broad spectrum of electromagnetic radiation and transduce this radiation into other forms of energy, raises the possibility that melanin also functions in harvesting such energy for biological usage. The ability of melanotic fungi to harness electromagnetic radiation for physiological processes has enormous implications for biological energy flows in the biosphere and for exobiology, since it provides new mechanisms for survival in extraterrestrial conditions. Whereas some features of the way melanin-related energy transduction works can be discerned by linking various observations and circumstantial data, the mechanistic details remain to be discovered.
Life on Earth has always existed in the flux of ionizing radiation. However, fungi seem to interact with the ionizing radiation differently from other Earth’s inhabitants. Recent data show that melanized fungal species like those from Chernobyl’s reactor respond to ionizing radiation with enhanced growth. Fungi colonize space stations and adapt morphologically to extreme conditions. Radiation exposure causes upregulation of many key genes, and an inducible microhomology-mediated recombination pathway could be a potential mechanism of adaptive evolution in eukaryotes. The discovery of melanized organisms in high radiation environments, the space stations, Antarctic mountains, and in the reactor cooling water combined with phenomenon of ‘radiotropism’ raises the tantalizing possibility that melanins have functions analogous to other energy harvesting pigments such as chlorophylls.
A fungus that “eats” radiation is now radioactive.
“Send some of it to Fukushima.”
The fungus that destroys Tokyo - gonna be a new set of “classic” movies...”Fungzilla Strikes Again”
Author is a moron. Fungus “eats” radiation “light”** like plants “eat” sunlight. Plants don’t eat the sun, nor do these fungi eat any radioactive materials. No reduction in radioactive material. The material still glows brightly with ionizing radiation as it undergoes radioactive decay down to a stable isotope.
** Everything on the EM spectrum is light. Sunlight, radio waves, x-rays, alpha, beta, gamma ionizing radiation, infrared and UV, just to name a few.
Fungi for the fun guy?
Its name is Godzilla.
A fungus that “eats” radiation is basically chlorophyl for wavelengths shorter than ultraviolet.
X - THE UNKNOWN
Lordy that would be so much psilocybin
At 200/oz
Lotsa money too
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