
Fungi that eats radiation found inside Chernobyl reactor - jelliclesfarm
https://www.foxnews.com/science/chernobyl-fungi-eats-radiation
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madaxe_again
See
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus),
which I’m guessing is the source article for this piece.

Not really that much of a “shocker”, as the research is decades in at this
point.

~~~
ISL
It is still really cool. As a physicist, with a lot of contacts to nuclear
physics, I can't recall hearing about any biological systems (aside from
humans) making deliberate beneficial use of gamma radiation.

With sufficient evolution, one could imagine a biological system that could
sustain itself for long durations in spaceflight with only a gamma source for
"food". Such an organism could travel far and wide.

~~~
jshevek
I was thinking something similar: Can we farm this organism? Could
intergenerational ships of humans travel between stars, if they had gamma
based farms?

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driverdan
I flagged this because it's garbage reporting on something that was published
in 2007[1] and 2008[2].

1:
[https://www.nature.com/news/2007/070521/full/news070521-5.ht...](https://www.nature.com/news/2007/070521/full/news070521-5.html)

2:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2677413/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2677413/)

~~~
jshevek
I see a great deal of garbage reporting on HN that doesn't get removed.

I was previously unaware of this fungi and I appreciate the discussion
occuring.

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snapetom
Tangentially related to this, I remember in the late 80's hearing about
bacteria that ate nuclear material, drastically reducing the half life of
plutonium. I assume that research went nowhere since thirty years later, we
don't hear about it.

Does anyone remember this or know anything about it?

~~~
rleigh
Nothing can reduce radioactive half-life. It's a constant value for each
isotope. If you found a way, you would have rewritten physics as we know it.

~~~
SAI_Peregrinus
Technically you could add or remove neucleons to change which isotope (or
element) you've got, which would change the half-life. EG running a nuclear
reactor changes the half-life of the fuel rod, by changing the materials in
the fuel rod.

~~~
stallmanite
Now we just need to engineer ourselves an organism incorporating a nuclear
reactor. Are there any absolute showstoppers thermodynamics wise that would
prevent such a thing?

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lioeters
This reminds me of the mycologist Paul Stamets' proposal to use radiotrophic
fungi to clean up Fukushima.

[https://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/using-fungi-
remediat...](https://www.permaculture.co.uk/articles/using-fungi-remediate-
radiation-fukushima)

Further on "mycoremediation":

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycoremediation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mycoremediation)

My biased view is that fungi-based technology is an under-appreciated field
with great potential for growth and wide range of applications.

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bxio
Is this our version of the protomolecule? When do we send Joe Miller to
investigate?

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ceejayoz
Plants "eat" radiation, too.

It's a flashy headline, but fairly meaningless.

~~~
JumpCrisscross
> _fairly meaningless_

Plants photosynthesise visible light. These fungi “use the pigment melanin to
convert gamma radiation into chemical energy for growth” [1].

That’s a meaningful difference.

[1]
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus)

~~~
ceejayoz
The next line in that paragraph:

> This proposed mechanism may be similar to anabolic pathways for the
> synthesis of reduced organic carbon (e.g., carbohydrates) in phototrophic
> organisms, which convert photons from visible light with pigments such as
> chlorophyll whose energy is then used in photolysis of water to generate
> usable chemical energy (as ATP) in photophosphorylation or photosynthesis.

Again, I don't find it surprising that an organism has managed to metabolize a
form of EM radiation, as plants serve as a handy example of evolving to do
precisely that.

Perhaps the ionizing nature of Chernobyl's radiation helps generate more
selection pressure towards it, even.

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tomaszs
With all problems we have radioactive fungi is what we need the most

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pcj-github
Please don't post articles from foxnews. They target lowball intelligence; I
find it insulting to the hackernews community.

~~~
classicsnoot
Can you define "lowball intelligence?" That seems like a bigoted term and
probably violates HN rules.

~~~
jelliclesfarm
‘Lowball intelligence’ I am going to assume that was directed towards me. I
posted this link. Because I have a ‘farm’ suffix instead of ‘GitHub’ suffix
with handle.

I picked this handle to apply to YC twice for Ag robotics. And I am proud of
it. And was told that there is no money in Ag. That’s ok. We..lowball
intelligences..will continue to feed everyone irrespective of who they are or
what they do. Or whatever high intelligence reading list that needs perusing.
Please carry on. The world needs its next Tinder crushing app. Because.
Priorities.

~~~
classicsnoot
I might be a lowballer myself. I'm not a fan of Fox News, or any legacy media
for that matter, but I take umbrage to the idea that the source dictates the
recipient. CNN consistently inflates and mislabels information to fit a
narrative, but that doesn't mean the people watching are by necessity failing
at reasoning.

Keep posting. The bar for HN is "interesting topics." This absolutely
qualified. Also, keep the faith. Food is the great leveller. The world will
probably come back around to appreciating those that give it to us.

