If someone claims they "eat" the radiation to make it disappear: Correction! They don't neutralize the radiation or "eat" the radioactive isotopes (the graphite stays radioactive). They just harvest the energy emitted by the decay—like a person sitting by a fire doesn't "eat" the logs, they just use the heat.
The "Chernobyl fungus" (C. sphaerospermum) is a wild case of life adapting to the extreme. 🍄☢️
Proven: It's #radiotrophic (attracted to radiation) and flourishes where humans would die.
The Debate: Does it "eat" radiation (#Radiosynthesis)? It's a leading theory, but we're still looking for the definitive "smoking gun" chemical pathway.
The Goal: Space-travel shields. If we can't block cosmic rays with lead, we might just grow a layer of black mold on our spacecraft!
Did you know that fungi grow inside the melted Chernobyl reactor?
The fact that fungi thrived where German robotics—the pinnacle of 1980s engineering—literally fried is the ultimate proof of their biological seniority.
#Radiotrophic Growth: While the robots suffered from ionizing radiation destroying their circuitry, the fungi (Cryptococcus neoformans) used melanin (the same pigment in human skin) to perform #radiosynthesis.
#InTheNews - #Radiation eating fungus. Savior or #NuclearIndustry PR? I've always been fascinated by the #RadiotrophicFungus. But is it truly performing #Radiosynthesis? What is the "chemical byproduct"? Also, I do remember reading about #FukushimaBlackMold and #SpaceFungus on the #ISS. Hmmmm....
Species in #Chernobyl disaster zone is mutating to feed on nuclear radiation
By CHRIS MELORE, US ASSISTANT SCIENCE EDITOR, 1 December 2025
"Nearly 40 years after the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in Ukraine, scientists have discovered a form of life that's thriving on the radiation that's been left behind.
A strange black fungus called #CladosporiumSphaerospermum, found growing on abandoned reactor walls, hasn't just learned to survive the deadly fallout, but several strains now grow faster when radiation is present and even move towards it."
#radiotrophic #fungi grow at #FOUR #TIMES the rate they would in background radiation.
From the middle of another amazing thread by @c0nc0rdance
: @c0nc0rdance
https://mastodon.cloud/@c0nc0rdance/109951435326634726
Attached: 1 image In 1986, dark, melanin-producing (melanotic) fungi were found on the walls of the Chernobyl reactor & in the cooling tower water. Samples of these fungi, when exposed to a radiation source, were observed to grow TOWARDS the source, along a gradient of increasing gamma exposure.
earthling
DoomsdaysCW
Chuck Darwin