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The mysterious black fungus from Chernobyl that may eat radiation
- mrweasel 11mo agoI wonder if you could power something of this? If the fungus have some type of melanin that will turn ionized radiation into energy, could we then use that to power something of background radiation? Also interesting to see how close this fungi will grow to the radiation source, or will it be able to mutate to completely envelop the radiation source.
- dodslaser 11mo agoJust dry the fungus and burn it. The process is fairly analogous to photosynthesis in plants, so we've basically already been doing this since we learned to make fire, just with a different source of radiation.
- VladVladikoff 11mo agoI had the same thought, I wonder if we could make better solar cells?
- reliablereason 11mo agoI did some basic calculations to compare the energy in the radiation vs the energy required to grow 10% extra. - If we assume they are working in the reactor we get radiation levels of something like 1 mGy/hour. But we can prop this up to mabye 500 mGy/hour since i dont know how they grew their culture - That leads to 0.05 J of extra energy per gram of microbial bio material. - Energy needed to grow 1g of microbial biomaterial ≈ 3.15 kJ 10% of that is 315 J per gram The result is that: The amount of radiation energy available is 4 orders of magnitude too small to power even a 10% growth boost. Edit: updated with more accurate estimations.
- engine_y 11mo agoThere's another parameter worth considering - how efficient is it to convert sunlight vs. gamma radiation into biologically usable energy. What if for some reason gamma radiation changes the equilibrium constants for ADP --> ATP?
- aeonik 11mo agoAnother hypothesis to test would be if the radiation is being used as a catalyst somehow. E.g. Could be denaturing something else, unlocking a previously inaccessible energy source. Possibly some radiochemistry creating a new food source for the fungus too.
- vintermann 11mo agoYeah, from that it sounds like the main advantage of this mold is that it gets some compensation from all that deadly radiation, and thus does better than mold which doesn't.
- kalaksi 11mo agoI'm not sure where you're going with this, but since they have actually researched how it grows, I think it's more likely your calculations/assumptions are incomplete. For example: > Energy needed to grow 1g of microbial biomaterial based on what? Edit: Maybe you meant that radiation alone wouldn't be enough for that growth, so there'd be other components that it's helping with.
- firesteelrain 11mo agoHow do you eat something you can’t see? It’s like eating electricity
- jansan 11mo ago> Zhdanova suspected that the melanin of these fungi was acting as a shield against ionising radiation. Wouldn't that be very easy to measure? My guts tell me that using the melanin as a shield against gamma radiation has a negligible effect, if any at all.
- londons_explore 11mo agoYou are assuming a molecule good at shielding against UV light is probably a poor shield against gamma rays, many orders of magnitude shorter wavelength. That sounds probable ... But how about the theory that systems to clean up smashed up proteins from UV light is also good to clean up smashed up proteins from gamma radiation? And one of the parts of that system, or upregulated with that system, is melanin.
- Qem 11mo agoThat makes me wonder if Ayam Cemani chicken have better tolerance to radiation than other breeds. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayam_Cemani https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayam_Cemani
- Tarmo362 11mo agoThere is a pretty interesting wikipedia page dedicated to these type of fungi if someone wants a read https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus
- neom 11mo agoInteresting that it uses melanin to survive, I wonder if studying it in the context of vitiligo would reveal anything given vitiligo is not well understood generally.
- mikkupikku 11mo agoI feel like I'm taking crazy pills every time I read about this fungus. Let us grant the premise of a fungus somehow harnessing ionizing radiation using melanin; such a fungus could in principle be used to shield radioactive sources, but it won't "eat it up"; the radioactive isotopes emitting that radiation won't be disposed of in any way by the fungus. They don't eat those, and even if they did it wouldn't get rid of them, only incorporate them. Neither chemical nor any kind of biological process can make radioactive isotopes stop being radioactive, you need some sort of nuclear process to do that. The absolute best the fungus could do is bind up the radioactive isotopes to aid in their collection, but epoxy resins sprayed over the contaminated areas are far more effective than that could ever be. Also, making spacecraft shielding and even furniture out of this stuff? It's the stupidest thing I ever heard. The mass of the fungus doesn't come from ionizing radiation anymore than the mass of a plant comes from sunlight. You might as well claim that you're going to grow trees in space using the abundant sunlight. They power themselves with light but still need to be made out of something! Are they also hoping these fungus like to eat lunar regolith? It makes zero sense, but here we've got the BBC and apparently NASA taking the idea seriously. Where is the fucking biomass meant to come from?? I must be crazy, or they all are.
- lazide 11mo agoSomething the fungus COULD do (in a hypothetical world) is concentrate radioisotopes along with some moderator to accelerate the fission process and harvest more energy. Would probably require a lot more time than it would have, however, considering the relatively low amounts of radioisotopes in todays world (due to the halflife of most of them, and the age of our planet). Several billion years ago it could have been a thing though!
- mikkupikku 11mo agoMaybe in principle, but neutron radiation from fallout/etc is relatively minimal and you really just have to wait out the decay of those isotopes. The good news is radiation detectors are insanely sensitive so you can map where the hotspots are and mitigate much of the risk using exclusion zones and / or various cleanup techniques to collect the radioactive material so it can be safety stored.
- HelloUsername 11mo agoRelated: "Fungus in Chernobyl nuclear disaster zone has mutated to 'feed' on radiation (2024)" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45901149 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45901149 12-nov-2025 "Fungus found in Chernobyl might process radiation and act as a shield (2024)" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43534021 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43534021 31-mar-2025 "A Black Fungus Might Be Healing Chernobyl by Drinking Radiation" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43148355 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43148355 23-feb-2025 "Radiotrophic fungus" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41085406 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41085406 03-aug-2024 "Chernobyl fungus could shield astronauts from cosmic radiation" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35181146 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35181146 16-mar-2023 "Fungus at Chernobyl absorbs nuclear radiation via radiosynthesis" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24166994 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24166994 15-aug-2020 "Radiotrophic fungus" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20342750 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20342750 03-jul-2019 "Chernobyl Fungus Feeds On Radiation (2007)" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6763520 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6763520 19-nov-2013 "Black Fungus Found in Chernobyl Eats Harmful Radiation" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=127626 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=127626 02-mar-2008
- _young_grug_ 11mo agoThis would be a cool origin story for astrophage (from Project Hail Mary, a fun & light sci fi read by the Martian guy)
- kakacik 11mo agoThere is a movie coming with Ryan Gosling, I sure hope they keep the spirit of the book and don't turn that into some bizarre hollywoodish cash grab
- mikea1 11mo agoI think the Martian was adapted well from book to movie, so I have hope for this one. That said, compressing the entire story into a theatre runtime is tricky: I think it would be a win if only half of the character and relationship growth of the two ship bound protagonists comes through in the adaptation (because it was sooo good in the book!)
- linhns 11mo agoThe Martian was well adapted as the story has an attention to scientific details, can’t say that for Project Hail Mary
- fredoliveira 11mo agoTrue - but I think that might make the adaptation to a movie easier, not harder. Like GP said, I think the trick to this book is in the relationship between the 2 main characters, so hopefully they nail that. Judging by the trailer they made it all quite humorous.
- testing22321 11mo agoAndy Weir is a producer on this one. The trailer looks good (with spoilers)
- MobileVet 11mo agoI know they have to peak interest, but man, so many spoilers in the 2 trailers. They look amazing, clearing a huge budget and I hope a solid adaptation… sad for people that don’t know the story to miss out on the reveals.
- einpoklum 11mo agoI was immediately reminded of Hayao Miyazaki's post-apocalyptic manga and anime film, "Nausicaa of the valley of the winds", where the fungus-and-spore-filled jungle, toxic and lethal to humans, actually serves as a sequestering and purification agent for the ecosystems affected by some apocalyptic, possibly nuclear, catastrophe. http://www.nausicaa.net/wiki/Nausica%C3%A4_of_the_Valley_of_the_Wind http://www.nausicaa.net/wiki/Nausica%C3%A4_of_the_Valley_of_... https://ghibli.fandom.com/wiki/Nausicaä_of_the_Valley_of_the_Wind https://ghibli.fandom.com/wiki/Nausicaä_of_the_Valley_of_the...
- kineticdaffodil 11mo ago[dead]
- infinet 11mo agoThe article talks about fungi been attracted to ionising radiation. Per wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionizing_radiation https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionizing_radiation Ionizing (or ionising) radiation is particle or photon that has enough energy to detaching electron from atoms or molecules. It includes all the usual high energy radiations such as Gamma, X-rays, high energy UV, alpha, beta, neutron et al. HN high energy physicists can correct me, sounds like it is not any particular category of the harmful radiation from a nuclear disaster, it is all of them.
- deadbabe 11mo agoImagine if this fungus and its radiation eating abilities was the key to interstellar travel.
- thomas-shelby 11mo ago[dead]
- lisbbb 11mo agoI'm skeptical just because I know someone who has been working on the problem of radioactivity for like 30 years and they have left no stone unturned in that undertaking.
- kevin-scott21 11mo ago[dead]
- anonymousDan 11mo agoI don't understand why the nuclear industry wouldn't pile in to fund research into this area (as a potential way to clean up nuclear waste). Probably I don't understand how this fungus actually works and it is impossible!
- polyterative 11mo agoalmost nobody cares about solving actual problems :C
- whimsicalism 11mo agoclean it up how? by having fungus grow near it?
- randallsquared 11mo agoAs mentioned elsethread, it doesn't actually clean up anything, since it doesn't affect the waste at all, just turns some of the radiation into metabolism in the same way that plants turn solar radiation into metabolism. Even if it did somehow accelerate the decay, it wouldn't be that useful, since (Chernobyl aside), all the waste from the typical civilian nuclear reactor can fit in a side lot on the site of the reactor complex itself (and often does!). There just isn't that much radioactive waste to clean up!
- SoftTalker 11mo agoYeah waste has been a red herring that anti nuclear people like to bring up. Yes it’s nasty stuff but there isn’t that much of it and it can be buried or reprocessed it’s not a real problem.
- strken 11mo agoLow level waste is an expensive pain in the buttocks. I toured a local medical and research reactor back in highschool, and they were running out of space to store their discarded PPE and other minimally contaminated waste. You could probably empty most of the barrels on the floor and roll in the contents without any noticeable effect, and yet they still needed to be treated like real waste, just in case. Not to disagree with you, just to say that even though it's a minor nuisance it nevertheless occupies a lot of mental space because of how annoying it is.
- balamatom 11mo agoGiven we can't solve our black mold problem, might as well tell ourselves we're in symbiosis with it. It's our radiation shielding, see. That, and cactuses. Truly the science of winning.
- Walt-Stevens21 11mo ago[dead]
- ziofill 11mo agoBut the half life of the atoms is still the same, no? The bacteria and fungi harness the radioactivity, but it’s not that they “get rid” of the radioactive material.
- deleted 11mo ago[deleted]
- graypegg 11mo agoI don't think they claim the mold removes radioactive material, but that it absorbs a high amount radiation since it's producing so much melanin, and seems to be fine. Since it's absorbing so much, it works like a radiation shield, kind of like lead. So "eat" was a bit of a poetic choice for the title really haha. It "eats" energy. Pretty good deal for the mold considering the radiation is going to be produced whether they "eat" it or not, for a VERY long time!
- gregbot 11mo ago>The increase in biomass and other effects could be caused either by the cells directly deriving energy from ionizing radiation, or by the radiation allowing the cells to utilize traditional nutrients either more efficiently or more rapidly It has not actually been proven that this fungus gets energy from the radiation itself. They simply observe it growing faster in the presence of radiation which could be caused by any number of other things.
- neom 11mo agoThis article lead me to an interesting exchange about vitiligo, thought I'd post it here for posterity: Me - Nov 28, 2025, 10:51 AM: Hey Dr. Dadachova, there was an article in the bbc today about radiotrophic fungus, I did some reading on them and it got me thinking about vitiligo. Current dermatology literature focuses on the immune destruction of melanocytes, often citing "oxidative stress" as a cause. However, there seems to be a total absence of data regarding the physical structure of the melanin polymer itself in these patients. re: your findings that melanin’s electronic structure (EPR signal) changes under stress to become "protective/radiotrophic," I am wondering if the inverse mechanism could be driving vitiligo, where the melanin polymer is structurally defective (acting as a pro-oxidant "leaky capacitor") rather than a protective shield? To your knowledge, has anyone ever applied the EPR techniques used in your fungal research to analyze melanin isolated from the active border of Vitiligo lesions? It seems plausible that a structural defect in the polymer physics could be the upstream trigger for the autoimmunity, similar to the "toxic melanin" theories in Parkinson’s disease. I realized this sits at the exact boundary of your expertise in melanin physics and clinical pathology, and I was curious if you had ever explored this link?? tnx for reading! have a great weekend! :) j. -- Dadachova, Kate Fri, Nov 28, 9:57 PM to me Hello John, Thank you for your message and interest in melanin work! We have never looked at melanin in Vitiligo lesions but I think that your hypothesis about defective melanin could be correct. I know that there are studies showing absence of EPR signal in Vitiligo, and, on the contrary, enhanced melanin signal in melanoma in comparison with benign nevi. Probably an interesting study for a pathologist to perform! Best regards, Kate