Radiation eating fungi Chernobyl

This one should be right up out alley guys and gals

A black fungus first noticed in 1991 has now been determined to eat radiation and convert it to energy for growth.

In 1991, the strange fungi was found growing up the walls of the reactor, which baffled scientists due to the extreme, radiation-heavy environment.


Researchers eventually realized that not only was the fungi impervious to the deadly radiation, it seemed to be attracted to it.
A decade later, researchers tested some of the fungi and determined that it had a large amount of the pigment melanin -- which is also found, among other places, in the skin of humans.

Snip

Probably not the first time either.

In a 2008 paper, Ekaterina Dadachova, then of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, noted that the fungi attracted to radiation are unlikely to be the first examples of their kind.
"Large quantities of highly melanized fungal spores have been found in early Cretaceous period deposits when many species of animals and plants died out. This period coincides with Earth’s crossing the “magnetic zero” resulting in the loss of its “shield” against cosmic radiation," the paper's introduction states.

I can’t find any cons to this information. It seems like it could only be beneficial.


Source



Has anybody seen Matango fungus of terror?

a reply to: Fallingdown

They're all around us, in the soil, our bodies and the air, but are often too small to be seen with the naked eye.

They provide medicines and food but also wreak havoc by causing plant and animal diseases.

According to the first big assessment of the state of the world's fungi, the fungal kingdom is vital to life on Earth.

Yet, more than 90% of the estimated 3.8 million fungi in the world are currently unknown to science.

BBC.com - The secret life of fungi: Ten fascinating facts.

I read this last year when looking for biofuel news. Glad I could remember it! There is a bunch of weird little facts in the article. I didn't know the numbers about unknown species which is what is what I was going for.

It doesn't surprise me that there is something eating radiation. If anything could, it seem fungi could. They say some can survive the vacuum of space (Terrence McKenna's "mushroom panspermia"). Some make biofuel, some are grown as plastics replacement.

I drink them by the 16-ounces at a time!

Nice find!

a reply to: Fallingdown

This is how some horror movies start. It seems innocent enough but then wham! It turns into a monster and starts to reak havoc!

a reply to: Fallingdown

Fukushima could be doing with importing some of the stuff if it diminishes the radioactivity

As long as it does not turn into some kind of grey goo scenario. LoL

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

I can’t help but think about the usefulness it might have for underground radioactive storage. If the fungus neutralizes radiation. Jesus Christ just think about it .

It could solve one of the biggest screw ups man ever made .

This was from one of the studies that was the night . I know this is way out there but then I’m not a scientist .

Could the melanin in human skin cells likewise turn radiation into food? Casadevall speculates that it might, but the amount of energy provided would probably be very small — and certainly not enough for a busy astronaut. "Currently there is no evidence for this," says Casadevall, "however the fact that it occurs in fungi raises the possibility that the same may occur in animals and plants."

Source

a reply to: lostbook

No worries

They’ve probably got Bruce Campbell on speed dial .

Life finds a way.

a reply to: Fallingdown

You understand trees “eat” radiation? Sunlight, photosynthesis, and chlorophyll.

Trees can eat radiation, but they don’t eat the source. I am guessing the fungi can use the energy of radiation, but do not destroy the elements and isotopes that cause the radiation.

Then I don’t think fungi will do much to shield individuals from radiation. If I remember right. About an inch of lead will reduce or shield an individual from gamma radiation by a factor of 10.

a reply to: neutronflux

Unfortunately, i think the fungus just thrives in a radiation rich environment, as opposed to somehow synthesizing or reducing the half-life of any nasty isotopes it happens to come across.

Interesting stuff, all the same, might teach us a thing or two about how life manages to thrive under extreme conditions.

Well, fungal life anyway.

a reply to: neutronflux

Yes I do. It almost offends me that you had to ask . 😆(jk)

That sounds about right. Did you read the link it says clear as mud .

Check out the top right too.

Fungus the miracle yucky stuff

a reply to: Fallingdown

the “shades of non-white” skin is interesting as a radiation consumer! The color is the reflection of light and if they are black... you understand.

That is startling in and of itself!

Extremophiles in trenches on the sea floor were not even conceived of until we went there and saw them for ourselves!!

The “growing towards” the source is also interesting. It means that our bias of what “life” is shows how wrong our thinking is. What about creatures in a hostile environment like supercritical CO2 breathing that like we drink water??

With 90% percent of the fungi unknown it means we might be ignoring the species that can save us!

And hey, we can add the bioluminescence gene to skin cells why a protective cover from any of three species of fungi??!

Ah beer! Letting me think weird thoughts!!

a reply to: TEOTWAWKIAIFF

A psychedelic fungus eating radiation.

I think the hippies would’ve been good with that . Lol

We shouldn’t be surprised by discoveries like this . Uses for fungus keep pooping up all the time .

That artical said they eat plastic, asbestos, fall out and CD’s ( I’m a little afraid to guess on that one )
😇

I wouldn’t put it out in the realm of possibilities that sooner or later we discover .

They will eat anything just like Michael Moore .

a reply to: Fallingdown

When either can pass the Turing Test we should get afraid!!

My money is on fungus!!

(Just the beer talking! I like him asking difficult questions. And the silliness of the reactions to what he makes. This was pre “triggered”...)

So weaving this fungus into kevlar or some other type of hasmat suit could be very beneficial.
On a similar note - we’re getting pretty close to dropping our magnetic guard again right?

So what’s the plan? Underground bunkers?

Fungi are just straight up awesome. I've studied them for years and still do. I regularly go mushroom hunting here in the northeast.

Doesn't surprise me 90% of estimated fungi are undiscovered. I've found a few here and there i was never able to identify. I wish I kept them, logged info about them and bring it to a mycologist for more detailed analysis. Well I'm sure I'll find more in the future.

There range of medical and disposal uses of fungi could be limitless. Even toxic species can be researched for compounds that can be useful. And the use of the "fun" fungi is great for connecting with nature, helping with personal insight and just enjoying in general, I've got a bit of experience with that

I'm curious to know if it gets to the source, will it eat just eat the radiation? Or will it adapt and eat the source? Which may not affect half life but could reduce the amount of material giving off the radiation....that would be interesting to say the least.

a reply to: BerkshireEntity

Aye, their magic, well some of them.

wasent it an fungus as biggest organisme on earth ?

read years ago about an giant fungus in the ground in the northern part of the UK...

a reply to: ressiv

Apparently the biggest mushroom in the world, Armillaria Ostoyae or as it's been fondly nicknamed the Humongous Fungus. Covering 2,385 acres of Malheur National Forest, Oregon, it's our largest organism, and from the way the fungus has been growing, it may also be our oldest organism.

Thought it has been pointed out by two other users here... the fungus isn't really neutralizing the radiation sources, simply it is thriving in the high radiation environment, probably using the ionization to drive some of its chemical processes.

The only way this could be useful is IF the fungus is able to adhere to high radiation material as some kind of tracer that can be scraped off of a surface for storage. However that really only helps for surface contamination, not much else.

Putting this stuff in a hazmat suit will also do nothing except... add fungus to the suit. It will provide zero more protection than the hazmat suit already does.

a reply to: Fallingdown

I once worked for some professors who started at Vanderbilt when I was just out of school. They left teaching to clean up waste with the microbes they discovered that eat certain metals and convert them into inert harmless biological by products of nature. The inventors were very rich by the the time I met them. It was neat as hell pulling up to a place to sample the water at various stages of treatment and see it was working. I ran one in situ experiment for them that was being upscaled on site for production at the Ciba-Gigi chemical dye manufacturing plant in Tom's River NJ. Prior to that the contaminants were leaking in the Ocean.