Fungus in Chernobyl nuclear disaster zone has mutated to 'feed' on radiation (2024)

https://www.unilad.com/news/world-news/fungus-chernobyl-mutated-feed-radiation-164735-20241217

by thunderbong • 8 months ago

88 82 8 months ago

Life finds a way.

We're going to see an increase in plastic metabolizing bacteria as well, so eventually our plastics will 'rust' and degrade faster.

chistev4• 8 months ago

I was going to ask about plastic eating microbes in my comment. Even metal eating microbes. I wonder how we'll handle that when they start destroying the foundation of civilization. Lol

freehorse• 8 months ago

We will invent something to kill them, as usual.

datadrivenangel2• 8 months ago

To a large extent, it probably won't be too bad because the density of plastics is still low in the general environment. If there are steep energy gradients, eventually life tends to take advantage of them.

Also there's the risk that we accidentally release some genetically modified bacteria and they prove to be hardier than expected.

dilawar• 8 months ago

I few months ago I learnt something related that may be a common knowledge to many here. I feel silly that I didn't know.

Earth had a plastic like problem before. There were no fungi that eat cellulose so dead trees were just piling up without degrading. Those trees turned into ~petroleum~ coal that we consume now.

That trees somehow turned into ~petroleum~ coal, I learnt in school. I used to imagine trees were somehow buried under stand suddenly and before they could be degraded they turned into ~petroleum~ coal under heavy pressure.

amelius2• 8 months ago

We might soon need silicon-eating microbes.

maplant• 8 months ago

I’m not even remotely close to knowledgeable on this subject but I assume metal eating microbes are not possible because metals are not molecular and therefore there’s nothing for them to be broken down into

benchly2• 8 months ago

This was my take for a short story I banged out one week after reading about the metal-eating microbes. Basically, humanity was all "three cheers for these little guys helping us fix all the pollution, etc" then shifting to "huh, that's an awful lot of changes happening to the gas content of the air and oh, didn't you corporate guys who sold us these solutions say you had these microbes under control? Oh, you did? But...like past tense?"

I read too much dystopian sci-fi to write much else, but in truth, I have pretty high hopes for these garbage-eating microbes.

shagie2• 8 months ago

We're going to see an increase in plastic metabolizing bacteria as well

https://big.ucdavis.edu/blog/plastic-eating-microbe

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PETase

November 4th : https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/11/251104013023.h...

Beneath the ocean’s surface, bacteria have evolved specialized enzymes that can digest PET plastic, the material used in bottles and clothes. Researchers at KAUST discovered that a unique molecular signature distinguishes enzymes capable of efficiently breaking down plastic. Found in nearly 80% of ocean samples, these PETase variants show nature’s growing adaptation to human pollution.

perihelions2• 8 months ago

Also an HN thread,

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45886479 ("Widespread distribution of bacteria containing PETases across global oceans (oup.com)"—1 day ago, 72 comments)

(The new $300 iPhone thong is made of PET (polyester), so, it's reassuring to know the universe does have the capability to unmake those).

clickety_clack2• 8 months ago

Plastic-eating bacteria could be one of the most destructive forces we’ve ever faced, given how dependent we’ve become on plastics. We’d lose domestic electricity due to the degradation of insulation. We’d lose water due to the loss of water pipes. Modern houses would fall apart as the resin in plywood turns to mush. Supply lines would completely fall apart as roads turn to potholed mud, and the trucks that drive on them grind to a halt. It’s a true nightmare situation. I assume the smell would be awful too, as almost every surface is treated with plastic paints, varnishes and coverings.

raverbashing• 8 months ago

It does find, though last time evolution took some million years to figure out how to break polymers. (That period is known as the Carboniferous period)

krige• 8 months ago

Well, good thing it had a head start now.

jijijijij• 8 months ago

I think this is a fallacious expectation. For most environments, I don't see why there would be selective pressure towards plastic degradation. That is, "burning" plastic as fuel would likely require the absence of an alternative. Obviously this hasn't happened with coal or oil, although those are energy dense fuels. There are already organisms which have the enzymatic means for the break down of some plastics. Given the omnipresence of plastic pollution, if there was selective pressure, we would probably have seen some specialization already. Especially for microbes. It took a looong time before fungi were able to breakdown lignin. Before that, the only thing removing dead trees was fire. So... there is a good chance we are going to see shit all. Especially on land.

spwa4• 8 months ago

What's weird is that this is based on melanin, and how fast it happened. Doeswould seem at least likely that this is life digging up an old recipe rather than coming up with something new. Melanin can usefully absorb high-energy gamma rays ... that means there must have been a period, long enough, in earth's history where high energy gamma rays were easy to come by.

That could only have been on land, or in the very top layer of the ocean (because they don't pass through water).

So where in earth's history do we have a period where a large landmass had sufficient wattage in high energy gamma rays? Or at the very least a lot of UV rays, enough to damage/kill normal life. Such a place would otherwise have been very unhealthy for almost all life, as it destroys DNA.

Razengan2• 8 months ago

It had to be fucking fungus

Apparently trees used to lay fallen on the ground for millions (?) of years before fungus evolved to eat them, and since then there has been no new coal.

(I may be wildly off on the specifics but that is the gist I got from reading stuff here and there)

I swear fungi are the coolest and most "alien" lifeforms on this planet next to cephalopods ଳ

Or they're the original and we're the alien

Rooster612• 8 months ago

Fungi existed before plants, and definitely before plants evolved to the point of being what we'd consider trees. In fact, we find large fungi fossils that once likely lined the landscape like trees do now.

junon• 8 months ago

Just fact checked this. TIL, for some reason I thought plants came before fungi.

Rooster612• 8 months ago

I mean, this isn't THAT surprising. Photosynthesis after all is just radiosynthesis of electromagnetic radiation in the visible or near visible spectrum. Gamma radiation is the same phenomenon, just with a far higher frequency and enough energy to ionize molecules.

The chemical process obviously has to differ considering gamma radiation has enough energy to knock off electrons, but once you deal with that, it's energy ripe for the taking. I'm not shocked that life finds a way to harness that energy where abundant.

In fact, had life come about on an Earth with a weaker magnetic field, it may have relied more on gamma radiation than visible light, especially considering the larger potential amount of consumable energy present in gamma rays.

rdtsc• 8 months ago

Found a paper on it: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC1866175/pdf/pone.00...

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.

ge962• 8 months ago

Space shield?

0cf8612b2e1e• 8 months ago

In the Expanse books, space colonies would consume algae. Using some alien woo-woo, they engineered one with a superior yield because it could supplement its inputs with radiation.

JoachimS• 8 months ago

The book Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir this is exactly what they do - have a layer of the bacteria (which is integral to the plot) between the hull and where the humans lived.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Hail_Mary

Good, fun book. The main protagonists are a bit too inventive and quick to do solve, fix things. But in all fairness it's SF after all.

lo_zamoyski• 8 months ago

Content aside, it would be better if we avoided sources like UNILAD [0].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UNILAD

wonks• 8 months ago

I'm honestly disappointed that this post got so much attention with such a dubious source. The article doesn't even link to a press release, as far as I can tell.

tokai• 8 months ago

It gives both the full name of fungus and the name of a researcher plus his affiliation. More information than you often get fore more 'reputable' sources. Criticizing something only on the basis of the source, while the actual content is completely fine, is peak cargo cult information literacy.

softwaredoug2• 8 months ago

This sounds like a plot point in Project Hail Mary. Which has a microbe that lives off the sun, creating problems, and new technologies.

happymellon2• 8 months ago

a microbe that lives off the sun

Like algae?

mejutoco• 8 months ago

lives off the sun, creating problems, and new technologies.

It sounds like humans, from the description. Not sure if that was the joke.

renewiltord• 8 months ago

This is a bit of a spoiler but in the book, the astrophage sits on the Sun and eats it.

softwaredoug2• 8 months ago

Yeah I should have clarified. Like DIRECTLY on the sun :) It's not much of a spoiler, but the main problem of the book is a microbe consuming the suns radiation and robbing Earth of sunlight.

deepvibrations• 8 months ago

Wow, this is impressive. It's also the exact storyline from the animated series 'Common Side Effects', a really good series that feels more like watching a feature film.

drunkonvinyl• 8 months ago

The protomolecule???

Razengan2• 8 months ago

Consider the sci-fi trope of "mutants" resulting from existing animals exposed to radiation, I think it may be more common and likely for just the "microbiome" like fungi and bacteria to mutate instead and then that could affect the macro fauna in new ways.

tempfile2• 8 months ago

I assume it does not need to be mentioned that this does NOT "clean up" nuclear waste. It just means that the constant energy emitted by it can be harnessed by these fungi. The radioactive material will remain hazardous for the same amount of time as if the fungi did not exist.

HelloNurse• 8 months ago

Fungi "eating" radioactive materials would disperse them to some extent, making the contamination problem worse.

matthewfcarlson• 8 months ago

If I had a chunk of uranium but it was covered in an algae that absorbed all radiation out of the chunk, isn’t it much faster? As the effects of the uranium is largely mitigated.

Akronymus2• 8 months ago

At most it'd act as a form of shielding, pretty sure. Even if it were to incorporate the uranium, the "best" effect you'd get is diffusion of the chunk.

tempfile2• 8 months ago

isn't it much faster

No. Radioactive materials decay at the same rate no matter what you do to them.

the effects of the uranium is largely mitigated

Very different from decaying faster. It's possible that by covering it in algae you block the radiation from escaping. But the algae is still going to have to sit there for 10000 years without moving before the waste is decayed. You're better off sticking it inside lead.

astroflection• 8 months ago

https://archive.is/SGbVB

gorfian_robot• 8 months ago

they should spread some in fuel rod storage pools to see how it does

dang2• 8 months ago

Related. Others?

A Black Fungus Might Be Healing Chernobyl by Drinking Radiation - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43148355 - Feb 2025 (10 comments)

Fungus at Chernobyl absorbs nuclear radiation via radiosynthesis - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24166994 - Aug 2020 (104 comments)

Radiotrophic fungus - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20342750 - July 2019 (63 comments)

Chernobyl Fungus Feeds On Radiation (2007) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6763520 - Nov 2013 (53 comments)

Black Fungus Found in Chernobyl Eats Harmful Radiation - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=127626 - March 2008 (1 comment)

NaOH• 8 months ago

Radiotrophic fungus - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20342750 - July 2019 (63 comments)

dang2• 8 months ago

Inserted above. Thanks!

gsibble• 8 months ago

We've known this for 40 years? Why is it news today?

physarum_salad• 8 months ago

Ah yes unilad a great repository of rigorous scientific results haha.

There's a lot of complexity in fungal physiology and research has barely scratched the surface.

tim333• 8 months ago

It may have mutated to deal with radiation but radiation friendly organisms have been around for millions of years. Desulforudis audaxviator lives miles underground living on radioactive decay products.

As the environment at that depth is so much like the early Earth, it may indicate what types of organisms existed before there was an oxygen atmosphere. Billions of years ago, some of the planet's first bacteria may have thrived in similar conditions. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desulforudis_audaxviator

Fungus in Chernobyl nuclear disaster zone has mutated to 'feed' on radiation (2024)

Related Stories