science

23623 readers

466 users here now

A community to post scientific articles, news, and civil discussion.

rule #1: be kind

founded 2 years ago

MODERATORS

m3t00@lemmy.world

Joleee@lemmy.world

laverabe@lemmy.world

DeadPand@midwest.social

laverabe@lemmy.zip

364

Chernobyl Fungus Appears to Have Evolved an Incredible Ability (www.sciencealert.com)

submitted 1 month ago by A_A@lemmy.world to c/science@lemmy.world

57 comments fedilink hide all child comments

"That fungus is called Cladosporium sphaerospermum, and some scientists think its dark pigment – melanin – may allow it to harness ionizing radiation through a process similar to the way plants harness light for photosynthesis. This proposed mechanism is even referred to as radiosynthesis."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/39553283 https://libretechni.ca/post/483480

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

One potentially useful thing that they could be used for is finding radioactive contamination. Presumably it grows best at higher radiation, so instead searching with ~~ginger~~ Geiger counters for radioactive contaminants you could spread this stuff out over the environment, then just look for where it is growing a while later. Engineer it to be bright orange or something.

[–] Xerxos@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 month ago

One ginger, two ginger... Lot of redheads around today