“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
I can’t wait until we can lab-grow lignin, I’m talking 3D printed wood, mofuckas
Why would you want to take something that’s cheap and make something that’s wayy more expensive?
What was it again. A bacteria in a pocket in some Uran mine, that directly uses radiation as energy source? Might be yet another mechanism.
Does this fungus “eat” the radiation, as in we can use it to clean up radioactive areas? Cause that’d be nice.
It eats the radiation, not its source though. The emitter would have to be removed. Maybe it could be used in shielding ? Like in space where background radiation seems to be a problem.
Sadly, no. Radioactive processes happen without any external control (at least not on this level, they don’t run a reactor or accelerator), and this fungus only harvests the energy.
Akin to how plants photosynthesize without doing anything to the sun.
At least there it does provide shade, though I doubt the fungus would provide a whole lot of shielding…
Well if it just evolved this ability that suggests it found a unique niche. But it probably hasn’t optimized this, since it doesn’t have any pressure to compete against other organisms for the radiation source.
But the good news is that we could selectively breed the fungus, or even generically engineer it (once the genes are isolated) to maximize the ability much faster.
I don’t know how useful it would be for site cleanup but it might at least become good insulation (like the idea of space station shielding mentioned in the article).
We could breed it to incorporate radioactive particles to make it independently self-sustaining
You mean, digesting one of the dotzens of toxic Uran derivatives to thin air? I don’t think so.
Like everything nuclear, it’s a double edge sword. Clearing up nuclear power would be amazing. People knowing they can Nuke something and eradicate the after effects quickly
I should call her.
You should call her a doctor
I for one welcome our melanin-pigmented overlords.
Can’t go worse than the spray tanned ones.
The evidence that the fungi overlords will soon take over continues to mount…that’s why I don’t eat mushrooms…better safe than sorry…
You want Hulk fungi?
Because this is how you get Hulk fungi.
It’s even approximately that shade of green.
It’s not the fungi we asked for, but it’s the fungi we deserve.
Life… uhhh…
I rate this 3.6
3.6? Well it’s not great, but it’s not terrible.
The meter only goes to 3.6!
This looks like one of those bad conversions to imperial- instead of 3.28 feet per meter, your spaceship crashes into the surface
And the high-range dosimeter from the safe burned out immediately. It must have been faulty!
Funniest/saddest moment from that miniseries was when their officials have the West the propaganda numbers to build the robot. Fucking lol…
I don’t know it for sure, but I understood that the Germans built a robot capable of withstanding the propaganda number not explicitly for the Russians. It just happens to withstand those, but not the real numbers…
“West Germany, though, so you can imagine how that conversation went.”
it’s out of 3
Extract the gene and inject it into a roach. Then encode human DNA into roach eggs and fly those roaches to Mars. After a few generations we would have a fully grown man roach able to feed off the radiation. That’s as far as I’ve gotten that idea. Oh man, tomorrow is another fuckin Monday. But we’re just 5 more weeks from 2026 can’t wait to 2029 when we’ll have a new president. Thanks electoral college! Without you we wouldn’t be able to choose the most retarded possible person for the job. I hope you guys eat some psychedelics this time around. Sure we could also choose whatever the public picks. Wait, what was the question?
