Inside Chernobyl, a Fungus Has Been Quietly Feasting on Radiation
https://www.sciencealert.com/this-chernobyl-fungus-seems-to-have-evolved-an-incredible-abilityOpen linkView original on lemmy.todaySyndicated from the fediverse. Read and engage on the original instance.
View original on lemmy.todayhttps://www.sciencealert.com/this-chernobyl-fungus-seems-to-have-evolved-an-incredible-abilityOpen linkView original on lemmy.today
46 replies
According to the article there exists no evidence that it actually synthesis energy from the radiation. The title is a flat out lie. It is a hypothesis with zero evidence.
Also, it claims melanin that makes it dark, like our skin, is part of the synthesis, but an easier explanation is that it is there to protect against radiation, just like how melanin in our skin protects us from solar radiation.
The whole idea of "radio-synthesis" is pseudoscientific bullshit with nothing to back it up.
it's a hypothesis... making hypotheses and verifying them is how science progresses. you can't dismiss every single unproven hypotheses as pseudoscience. that is in fact, unscientific.
on the other hand, i am tired of media sensationalising as well...
The bigger problem here is that the paper is stating an (as of currently) unsupported hypothesis as a definitive fact
Pseudoscience is claiming something as fact when you have no evidence. Portraying an hypothesis as fact is an example of pseudoscience.
It isn't the hypothesis that makes things scientific, it is the testing and falsification of the hypothesis that makes it scientific. No such has been done.
Until you have the evidence and results, all you have is a sophisticated guess.
I absolutely can dismiss every unproven hypothesis as pseudoscience if it is used as if it was a proven hypothesis. You should too.
Yeah, and not like it needs to eat radiation to be successful, all it has to do is survive in a place where everything else dies, and suddenly it has no competitors or predators, and is free to grow explosively.
I disagree - there’s a massive corpus of science fiction behind it. Protomolecule!!
Unfortunately science alert has had shitty click bait titles for years.
It would be more interesting if it was noisily feasting on radiation
What...was it raised in a barn? People who chew with their mouths open deserve a special place in hell.
Actually it was raised in the Chernobyl exclusion zone so I think we can make an exception
You dont know if your tinnitus is getting worse or theres radiation fungus around
can we stop using the word quietly!? I am so quietly sick of hearing the word quietly in every god damn sentence I see
I am SLAMMED that your are quietly sick of hearing quietly.
I am silent screaming at your quiet comment that SLAMMED me.
Could you type this a bit quieter?
Upvoted quietly cause cat.
Sorry, but the fungus has been burping and slurping on radiation.
Quietly? Do fungi typically feast loudly?
They didn’t announce their feast on social media.
Nom nom nom nom
I wonder if theres a possibility to line a spaceship haul with this stuff to protect from cosmic radiation.
It's an interesting thought, but according to the article, it's not even clear that the fungus is absorbing radiation or befitting from radiation. Actual photosynthesis-via-radiation hasn't been demonstrated; it might simply be taking advantage of the absence of other species due to high radiation, or the radiation is triggering a stress response.
Beyond that, I'm not sure this fungus would have a better protection-per-ton rating than, say, water (which is an astoundingly good radiation shield). But, it might point us towards ways of developing plants which are radiation-tolerant, theoretically opening a path to growing food in orbital or lunar-surface environments.
Now I’m imagining ‘Moon Melons, Moon Mangos and Moon Mangetout”
This is mentioned in the article!
That sounds like a bad idea
Ok who wants to stick their dick in it first?
I think you found a perfect fit for you. I'll lend you my microscope
Me! Me!
The origin story of the toxic avenger
It's not going to end well for the belters
There is a fungus for everything
Forbidden dumplings.
Thought these were green buttholes
=3
It... uhm...
Looks like...
Uhm...
You know...
A butthole
Wash. Your. Ass.
No. I will not wash my wok and I will not wash my ass. I must preserve the flavor
So it's like last of us, but instead of making everyone a zombie, it makes everyone an drooing asshole with the goal of making the entire planet a radiated nuclear wasteland.
My god, we've been blaming social media for that. We are doomed! AI threat was just a diversion.
I wonder if it 'toots to scoot.'
I should call her...
Fungus eats radiation ... i think i saw the movie
That's a pretty funky video in the article. I didn't see much funghi, but I think the camera sensor was picking up on the radiation. At the dark scenes you can see these white artifacts, almost like ants on the screen, when you don't have a CRT TV tuned to a channel.
I hope when it develops sapience that we can be friends
Real life Fallout's "Glowing Fungus"
There is a form of life that can digest radioactive material to make it less radioactive?
Doubt
Edit: which chemical reaction can reduce radioactivity?
Edit2: seems like the part that said harvest and convert made me think it claimed to reduce radioactivity. But it seems like it does nothing to reduce radioactivity, just exist in it.