Life has a strange way of thriving in the most extreme places. A peculiar dark-black fungus at the Chernobyl disaster site is found to survive by feeding on deadly radiation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The catastrophe happened on April 26, 1986, when a routine safety test at Chernobyl\u2019s Reactor Four spiraled into the world\u2019s worst nuclear accident, caused by design and operational errors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
To mitigate radiation poisoning, a 30km (19-mile) \u201cexclusion zone\u201d was established, keeping humans out.\u00a0Despite the danger, some researchers have conducted studies on how radiation affects the surrounding environment.<\/p>\n
For instance, in 1997, Nelli Zhdanova, a Ukrainian mycologist, discovered black mould<\/a> colonizing the highly radioactive ruins of the Chernobyl nuclear plant, growing across walls, ceilings, and even inside the reactor building.<\/p>\n Far from avoiding the toxic environment, the investigation suggested the fungi were uniquely attracted to the ionizing radiation.\u00a0<\/p>\n This remarkable discovery \u2014 that life could thrive and grow in the presence of radiation \u2014 has challenged established ideas about life\u2019s resilience. It also introduced the potential for using this mould in applications such as cleaning up radioactive sites and shielding astronauts from cosmic radiation in space.<\/p>\n The role of melanin <\/p>\n The ionizing radiation<\/a>, typically a destroyer of DNA and cells, appeared to be a nutrient for these resilient fungi.<\/p>\n Melanin seemed to be the secret. The same pigment that gives us different skin tones and protects us from UV rays is packed into the cell walls of these Chernobyl fungi.\u00a0<\/p>\n Initial theories suggested melanin shielded the black mould.<\/p>\n However, a 2007 study<\/a> by a nuclear scientist revealed a key finding: the melanized fungi grew 10 percent faster when exposed to radioactive Caesium, suggesting they actively used the radiation for metabolic energy. This process was called radiosynthesis.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe energy of ionising radiation is around one million times higher than the energy of white light, which is used in photosynthesis,\u201d Ekaterina Dadachova, nuclear scientist, told the BBC<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cSo you need a pretty powerful energy transducer, and this is what we think melanin is capable of doing \u2013 to transduce [ionising radiation] into usable levels of energy.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Further studies found that not all melanized fungi exhibit this behavior, and one study even found no growth difference in tested fungi when exposed to radiation.\u00a0<\/p>\n Intrigued, the international scientific community sent samples of\u00a0Cladosporium sphaerospermum\u00a0\u2014 the same strain found in Chernobyl<\/a> \u2014 to the International Space Station (ISS). <\/p>\n Protecting astronauts and habitats <\/p>\n What happened next cemented the mould\u2019s cosmic potential. In the face of intense cosmic radiation, the fungi flourished, exhibiting a growth rate 1.21 times<\/a> that of control samples on the ground.<\/p>\n Interestingly, the ISS experiment also showcased the mould\u2019s potential as a protective barrier. As the fungi<\/a> developed, they shielded a notable amount of radiation compared to control areas.<\/p>\n From these experiments, experts suggest that the mould\u2019s perceived radioprotective benefits might not be solely due to melanin, but possibly other biological components, such as water.<\/p>\n Galactic cosmic radiation, a storm of high-speed charged protons from exploding stars, is \u201cthe greatest hazard\u201d to astronauts venturing beyond Earth\u2019s protective atmosphere.\u00a0<\/p>\n Standard shielding solutions, such as heavy metals, are expensive and heavy to launch into space. This Chernobyl mould offers a simple, biological alternative.<\/p>\n NASA astrobiologist Lynn J. Rothschild envisions \u201cmyco-architecture\u201d<\/a>\u2014 habitats grown from fungi on the Moon or Mars.<\/a> These living walls wouldn\u2019t just be structural; they would be self-regenerating radiation shields, grown in situ, drastically cutting launch costs.<\/p>\n Having colonized a toxic site like Chernobyl, these fungi may ultimately protect astronauts in the near future. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Life has a strange way of thriving in the most extreme places. 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