See https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus, which I’m guessing is the source article for this piece.
Not really that much of a “shocker”, as the research is decades in at this point.
Not really that much of a “shocker”, as the research is decades in at this point.
With sufficient evolution, one could imagine a biological system that could sustain itself for long durations in spaceflight with only a gamma source for "food". Such an organism could travel far and wide.
Also, it's shocking to me, did you already know about this?
After some research we don't seem to know everything about this fungi and it seems to have amazing potential for possible nuclear waste disposal.
> However in fungi, it reportedly absorbed radiation and converted it into some type of chemical energy for growth.
So the actual mechanism is more in line with photosynthesis, maybe call it radiosynthesis for a similar process outside of the visible spectrum. I'm not even sure what frequencies plants absorb light energy.
Also some genetic modification to the fungi may yield interesting results.
Seems like a waste if we can use the decay...
Also, this fungi could be infinitely cheaper and much greener than lead...
It is unlikely to be both cheaper than lead and equally reliable.
One day we may find a commercial use for this, but replacing lead with fungi in this context is not likely.
Funny enough, these little critters are actually found in reactor pools.