
Space station mold survives 200 times the radiation dose that would kill a human - lil-scamp
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/06/space-station-mold-survives-200-times-radiation-dose-would-kill-human
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klodolph
This is interesting but definitely not surprising by any means.

LD50 for humans is something like 4 Gy. Depending on strain, E Coli have an
LD50 of somewhere between 50 Gy and 500 Gy. Deinococcus radiodurans can
survive 5000 Gy. Polypedilum vanderplanki can survive 7000 Gy. Various
tardigrades will survive 1200-10000 Gy depending on species, state, and type
of radiation.

So there are plenty of things that can survive 200 times the radiation dose
that will kill a human, including an animal which is known to survive ~2500
times the dose that would kill a human.

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astrobe_
What makes them more "radiation-proof" than us?

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natechols
I don't know about the other organisms but in the case of Deinococcus, the
answer is multiple redundant backups of its genome, combined with extremely
robust DNA repair machinery.

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fbn79
Radiotrophic fungi are growing inside Chernobyl nuclear power plant and use
radiation as alternative source of energy for a process similar to
photosynthesis. REF:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus)

~~~
Shivetya
HN discussion[1] about why plants do not get Cancer was interesting to me and
somewhat related to this story on mold.

So I guess my question is, is there a mold that would be beneficial to have
grow in such a confined environment? I assume the ventilation system can
filter out the spores, are astronauts by way of the enclosed environment
subject to more exposure to spores than on Earth or are the numbers much lower
by volume?

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20321463](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20321463)

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defterGoose
If you're suggesting that having these types of organisms around would benefit
humans by absorbing harmful radiation, it wouldn't work that way.

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vokep
Is there a reason why this is nonsensical? It seems reasonable with the right
properties. If there were some sort of organism that would attract to
radiation and grow around, perhaps that could be at a significant enough size
that it actually absorbs significant radiation providing protection.

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natechols
You can get the same effect much more easily by shielding with water.

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bayouborne
Everything old is new again. I remember reading articles about the mold and
fungus trapped in laminated window layers on Mir. The fear then, was that we
were creating virulent super-strains.

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IlegCowcat
Is it possible that organisms could adapt to the extreme environment in space
and then get returned to earth with bad consequences for us?

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BurningFrog
Since Earth is very different from Space, they would be badly adapted to
Earth.

So there is very little to worry about from alien world infections.

And also, incidentally, why most awful diseases come from Africa, and very few
from the Americas.

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0xdeadbeefbabe
So we are infecting space? Or would that be stretching the similarity to
Africa and the Americas?

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BurningFrog
Well, Space is dead, for one thing :)

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exabrial
I'm guessing we've already accidentally seeded other bodies in space (mars,
venus, moon, various asteroids, etc) with life.

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JohnJamesRambo
NASA has procedures in place to wash their space going equipment with hydrogen
peroxide washes. Alas strains of Bacillus pumilus have been shown to survive
these washes. I had a chance to work on these strains that had been on the
space station in experiments to see how they responded to radiation etc there.
The resistance to hydrogen peroxide in this strain is incredible. It was so
far past resistant compared to the hardiest bacterial strains in the lab that
it was off the charts. Life as they say...always finds a way.

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sidcool
"Life finds a way"

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nurettin
Plant life, mostly.

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wongarsu
Or fungi, as in this example. Fungi aren't considered plants because they
don't do photosynthesis and are generally more like animals (weak cell walls
etc)

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elmo2you
I'm a bit confused, regarding why this is considered news. That is, beyond the
typical need for sensational headlines.

Humans are, as most animals, highly specialized organisms. Plants and fungi on
the other hand, are far more generic in their basic organisation. They
generally are more capable of recovering from random localized damage
(including, but not limited by, radiation), usually far better than animals.
It's a direct result of their evolutionary design.

What might be the only real shocking part in the reporting I've read about
this, is that the involved scientist are allegedly surprised about their
findings. I'm honestly not sure what to make of that.

I hope it's just a product of bad reporting, because otherwise it should raise
serious questions about the state of scientific knowledge/education. Maybe I
just missed something. I hope it's not just cynical abuse of ignorance, in a
hunt for more funding. Still, it feels weird, that with only high school
education on this matter (30 years ago) and a little common sense, none of
this sounds even remotely strange or surprising to me.

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manmal
I‘m not familiar enough with the matter, but I think UV light, radiated
everywhere every once in a while, should deal quite well with most pathogens.

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bobthepanda
> Cortesão also found that the spores survived large amounts of high-energy
> ultraviolet radiation, which is commonly used as a hospital disinfectant and
> has been proposed for sterilizing the surfaces of spacecraft.

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pvaldes
A possible solution could be to spray with water first. Maybe water with
sugar, fecula or something that would encourage the fungus to end the spore
part of its cycle.

And then shooting with UVA rays.

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obituary_latte
I love the scientific-y calculus of “stupid amounts” in any context. It’s
always fun to see a sense of humor and people having fun with their work.

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michaericalribo
And thus we created the protomolecule...

