{"id":162480,"date":"2025-12-01T14:50:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-01T14:50:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/162480\/"},"modified":"2025-12-01T14:50:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-01T14:50:11","slug":"todays-biggest-science-news-x-class-solar-flares-chernobyl-fungus-modern-humans-interbred-with-hobbits","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/162480\/","title":{"rendered":"Today’s biggest science news: X-class solar flares | Chernobyl fungus | Modern humans interbred with ‘hobbits’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Refresh <\/p>\n

2025-12-01T14:47:39.949Z
\nChernobyl mushroom could be feeding on radiation<\/p>\n

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\"A\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Getty)<\/p>\n

Onto terrestrial radiation now, and there are intriguing reports doing the rounds that a fungus may be using the radiation in the Chernobyl exclusion zone as food.<\/p>\n

The fungus is called Cladosporium sphaerospermum and the strange process it could be using to mop up Chernobyl\u2019s radiation is called radiosynthesis, which deploys melanin to metabolise ionising radiation, the BBC reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The process of radiosynthesis remains hypothetical for the time being, but it could stand as a potential new foundation for life on Earth.<\/p>\n

That means that instead of photosynthesis, the fungus may be thriving off the exploded fissile material of Ukraine\u2019s dark star. (Chernobyl is Ukrainian for wormwood, a prophesied star in The Book Of Revelation that falls to Earth to poison the waters).<\/p>\n

2025-12-01T13:44:21.297Z
\nLive Science roundup<\/p>\n

Here are some of the best stories Live Science published this morning and over the weekend:<\/p>\n

2025-12-01T13:39:34.853Z
\nSolar flares corrupt airplanes<\/p>\n

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\"gyptair\n<\/p>\n

An Egyptair AIrbus A320 SU-GCC (Image credit: vaalaa \/ Shutterstock.com)<\/p>\n

How much disruption can space weather really cause? Surprisingly, the answer is a lot \u2014 just ask Airbus.<\/p>\n

Solar eruptions can grow to truly catastrophic scales<\/a>, having the potential to wreak havoc on electrical systems and Earth-orbiting satellites.<\/p>\n

Even aircraft aren\u2019t immune from geomagnetic storms, as news broke over the weekend that aircraft manufacturer Airbus has recalled thousands of its A320 passenger jets owing to a fault that enabled intense solar radiation to “corrupt data critical to the functioning of flight controls”, Gizmodo reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The A320 is the most delivered jetliner in history, and the recall has severely impacted some airlines such as Colombia\u2019s Avianca, which said the issue had affected 70% of its fleet.<\/p>\n

And as solar activity continues to unexpectedly ramp up in its activity for the next few decades<\/a>, the issues posed by it are only likely to get worse.<\/p>\n

2025-12-01T12:36:03.184Z
\nGood morning, sunshine<\/p>\n

\n

\"An\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: AIA\/SDO\/NASA)<\/p>\n

Welcome back, science fans. We\u2019re here with news of fresh geomagnetic storms, as Earth was hit by one solar flare last night and many more \u2014 alongside a coronal mass ejection \u2014 appear to be in the offing.<\/p>\n

Coronal mass ejections (CMEs) are large, fast-moving clouds of magnetized plasma that occasionally get spat out into space by the sun alongside solar flares<\/a> \u2014 powerful explosions on our star’s surface triggered when solar magnetic loops snap in half like an overstretched elastic band.<\/p>\n

Last night\u2019s flare was a surprise, spaceweather.com<\/a> reports, coming from a new sunspot on the sun\u2019s northern surface that appeared to be harmless until it exploded. The flare ionized the Earth\u2019s atmosphere and caused a radio blackout over Australia.<\/p>\n

With multiple more sunspots appearing on the sun\u2019s surface, it could be a busy week for solar storms, potentially bringing more disruption in space and auroras here on Earth.<\/p>\n

\"Ben<\/p>\n

Ben Turner<\/p>\n

Acting Trending News Editor<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Refresh 2025-12-01T14:47:39.949Z Chernobyl mushroom could be feeding on radiation (Image credit: Getty) Onto terrestrial radiation now, and there…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":162481,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[85,46,141,145],"class_list":{"0":"post-162480","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-space","8":"tag-il","9":"tag-israel","10":"tag-science","11":"tag-space"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=162480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162480\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162481"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=162480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=162480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=162480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}