I 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.
I 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.
> 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.
I 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.
I 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.
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.
I'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.
I 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!
Given 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.
But 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.
>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.
This 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!
21 comments
[ 2.9 ms ] story [ 35.5 ms ] threadAlso 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.
- 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.
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.
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.
"Fungus in Chernobyl nuclear disaster zone has mutated to 'feed' on radiation (2024)" 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 31-mar-2025
"A Black Fungus Might Be Healing Chernobyl by Drinking Radiation" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43148355 23-feb-2025
"Radiotrophic fungus" 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 16-mar-2023
"Fungus at Chernobyl absorbs nuclear radiation via radiosynthesis" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24166994 15-aug-2020
"Radiotrophic fungus" https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20342750 03-jul-2019
"Chernobyl Fungus Feeds On Radiation (2007)" 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 02-mar-2008
http://www.nausicaa.net/wiki/Nausica%C3%A4_of_the_Valley_of_...
https://ghibli.fandom.com/wiki/Nausicaä_of_the_Valley_of_the...
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.
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.
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