4 ms·
> Radiotrophic fungi were discovered in 1991 growing inside and around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.[1] The original study is open access and is worth rea
by apo 7y ago
> Radiotrophic fungi were discovered in 1991 growing inside and around the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant.[1]
The original study is open access and is worth reading. Here's an interesting little review:
> The literature already contains some indirect evidence for the notion that radiation can enhance the growth of melanized microorganisms. For example, the melanotic fungus C. cladosporioides manifests radiotropism by growing in the direction of radioactive particles and this organism has become widely distributed in the areas surrounding Chernobyl since the nuclear accident in 1986 [7]. Both in the laboratory and in the field several other species of melanized fungi grew towards soil particles contaminated with different radionuclides, gradually engulfing and destroying those particles [35], [36]. In addition, there are recent reports that certain life forms can utilize non-conventional forms of energy - microbes in geothermal vents at the bottom of the ocean can harvest thermal radiation as an energy source [37] while some microorganisms living in mines exploit energy from radiolysis of water [38]. On the basis of these precedents and the results of this study we cautiously suggest that the ability of melanin to capture electromagnetic radiation combined with its remarkable oxidation-reduction properties may confer upon melanotic organisms the ability to harness radiation for metabolic energy. The enhanced growth of melanotic fungi in conditions of radiation fluxes suggests the need for additional investigation to ascertain the mechanism for this effect.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1866175/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1866175/
In particular the part about growing towards contaminated particles, "engulfing and destroying" them, seems like a finding with enormous practical potential.
- londons_explore 7y agoNo known biological process can "destroy" a radioactive isotope... I wonder what they mean... Perhaps they simply mean "break up"
- vilhelm_s 7y agoI guess the papers they cite are in Russian, so maybe someone else can dig into it more, but at least they link to abstracts in English [1,2] which say > Two ways of radioactive particles destruction by C. cladosporioides were established, one of them is a direct way by fungal overgrowth of hot particles and the second one an indirect way only by fungal metabolites. > It has been found out for the first time that Cladosporium cladosporioides and Penicillium roseo-purpureum are able actively overgrow "hot" particles whose radioactivity did not exceed 3.1-1.0(-7) Ci by gamma-spectrum and to destroy them 50-150 days later. So it seems that the fungus forms a layer around the particle? [1] https://europepmc.org/abstract/med/12664550 https://europepmc.org/abstract/med/12664550 [2] https://europepmc.org/abstract/med/1753889 https://europepmc.org/abstract/med/1753889
- k__ 7y agoWith "destroy" you mean turning something radio-active in something non-radio-active?
- layoutIfNeeded 7y agoThat would mean the fungus is capable of nuclear transmutation. I’d highly doubt that.
- peteradio 7y agoI too was fascinated by that statement. How does it destroy them? Is it extracting energy faster than would be let off in vacuum? Or is it an encapsulation?
- logfromblammo 7y agoI presume that the fungi grow toward the source of radioactivity until they engulf it, and it is not destroyed, but instead segregated and more easily separable from the environment by bio-accumulation. I.e. if you seed radioactive soil with radiotrophic fungi, wait a few years, and then mechanically separate fungus from soil particles, the separated soil would be less radioactive than it had been previously.
- mac01021 7y agoPresumably, though, other surrounding places will be more radioactive than before?
- logfromblammo 7y agoThe fungus itself will be more radioactive than background. I don't believe neutron activation is significant anywhere on Earth outside the containment of a fission reactor, power research facilities, or nuclear bomb tests. So mostly, places slowly become less radioactive over time unless you get radioactive particulates from one of the aforementioned sources, or from a natural concentration, and release them into the environment somewhere. Bio-accumulation can occur, such as the naturally radioactive potassium in a banana, but that's just shifting around the radioactive materials already present in the environment. Wherever you dump the fungus, or the ashes of the fungus, will be more radioactive than before. So a bio-remediation plan would likely grow fungus, separate most of it from the soil, and allow the remaining fraction to regrow, repeating as necessary. The separated fungus would be burned, and any radioactive fractions removed from the exhaust gases and dissolved in liquid or crystallized somehow. The ash would be vitrified into glass pellets. And then it'd probably still be less radioactive than an asphalt parking lot. But okay, seal it all up inside a drum and forget about it for 10000 years anyway.