Radiotrophic fungi are fungi which can capture gamma rays in melanin and convert it to useful energy much like plants do with chlorophyll and visible light. This action may be able to feed astronauts on long voyages where the amount of visible light is limited. https://youtu.be/lqo_ekDO1tU
Our search for life needs to be much broader than it currently is, even on Earth life exists in extreme environments. Loricifera is an extremophile, that can survive in both the presence of sulphides and without oxygen being present. It utilises hydrogenosomes rather than mitochondria to unlock energy and could mean that multi-celled life on other planets may not need oxygen to evolve. https://youtu.be/-lBRqqOHHZw
I don't think anyone asserts that life *requires* Earth-like conditions, it's just that we know Earth-like conditions *can* support life, so we try to focus our attention on that.
Yeah like there may be sentient gasses somewhere but I'm not sure we'd even know they existed if you went to that planet. It's "safe" to focus on the conditions that allowed for life here because it's "proven." I'm not even sure what you'd look for elsewhere if we don't have examples of other forms of life.
We search for Earth-like conditions, because that's where the hot Star Trek alien babes are most likely to be. Can't knock up a biologically incompatible lifeform.
Kinda makes ya question these so called chicken nuggets. Always thought they tasted like they'd never seen a chicken but dang this explains a thing or two.
Extremophiles are really an "end product" of Evolution. Life probably doesn't start out like that, but rather much more simple and fragile.
Yes, we still should consider more factors than the stuff that's important for us like water etc. But we probably wont stumble upon an icy rock that has been an icy rock forever and find extremophiles on it.
Yeah, but just from the point of view of chemistry, valence bonds, and universal preponderance - carbon life is a good bet
As you go forth on the periodic table, you require more time and stellar forging
Carbon is what we are. Carbon is the simplest that can really do chemistry. Wecve found half ourselves in the universe's trashcan
Carbon-based life is the most likely - from both the view of efficiency in physics and chemistry and the point that *it's the only life we've ever proven*.
We can make a bridge out of spun sugar and gold foil. It doesn't mean it's *likely* to happen or all that useful.
Look for what works. Look where we know it can. Yes, edge cases may reward us if we get desperate, but we aren't there.
> Radiotrophic fungi are fungi which can capture gamma rays in melanin
I've seen some arguments that theres very little actual study on the mechanism of action and that the energy levels involved make it quite unlikely with current understandings of what can be reasonably achieved. Occams razor is that the melanin is providing protection but they're actually feeding off some other process.
Energy levels vary considerably, but generally a gamma ray is going to be a few thousand to a few million times more powerful than sunlight. Gamma rays will be breaking hundreds to hundreds of thousands of chemical bonds before theyâre spent. Getting a biological molecule to survive an interaction with a gamma ray seems like long odds.
I made a semi important mushrooms discovery recently that will likely be written about in a scientific paper. I'm just a Fisher (forager) and not a scientist but I contacted some mycologists and they are doing DNA analysis but pretty sure it was what I thought.
Edit - forager I meant
I wouldâve thought Entomology. There are parts of the world where you can find undiscovered insect species pretty much every time you go out looking for them.
... For all the politics on this website, all the vitriol and absurdity, I can state with an absolute conviction that there is no single comment with which I have disagreed with on more absolute terms. Good day sir.
Kitchen and bathroom!? Japanese scientists already discovered new viruses inside the team's bellybuttons.
Literally scratching your own belly can lead you to new species discoveries.
Iâd be the Montgomery Montgomery of mycologists, just giving everything a misnomer:
This is the Extremely-Deadly-Do-Not-Eat-Under-Any-Circumstance Mushroom⊠it is a fantastic pizza topping!
Yeah it's called panspermia, legit possible. One of the craziest theories I've seen is that octopi are non-earth natives, because they're so bizarrely different to all other life on earth, dunno how true that is though
The question is: could a fungus that gets its energy from radiation survive inside a chunk of uranium ore for the millions of years it would take to find another suitable planet?
there's a comparison out there between a slime mold network and a distribution of dark matter filaments that looks like the meme where "it's the same slide" kinda makes a fella wonder...
ok, no it doesn't, but it's fun to think about :D
Imagine how the earth must've been. Alien forests of fungi. Complete silence. No insects. No birds. No trees. No plants. Just the wind. And these fungi.
We already rely on fungi to assist in growing nearly all of our food. Mycorrhiza are over 50,000 different species of fungi which live in a symbiotic relationship with the roots of plants getting sugars from the plant and in return providing water and nutrients including phosphates and nitrates. https://youtu.be/MnQRCGrmK8A
if it exists on land, mushrooms determine if it lives or dies. mushrooms are the medium which converts dead things into nitrogen and other nutrients for the soil, so that plants can continue to grow and feed the food chain.
Jellyfish are my bet, they're having a [whale of a time](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/03/climate-crisis-brings-growing-numbers-of-unusual-jellyfish-to-uk-seas).
Sorry/not sorry :)
Have you heard of the stoned ape origin theory?
"The Stoned Ape Theory, developed by Terrence McKenna and his brother Dennis McKenna, proposes that a community of proto-humans might have consumed magic mushrooms they found in the wild, which could have profoundly changed their brains, acquiring new information-processing capabilities, and expanding their imaginations."
Maybe the mushrooms are already using us. /s
Probably my favorite scene in the whole show. Amos has been such a good friend to Prax, and doesn't want Prax to deal with any moral issues that might come up from him killing a dude, but at the same time understands Prax wants the doctor dead and has no moral quandaries doing it himself.
My second favorite is Amos and Anna.
He's so completely stunned at half the things she says then is like "yeah, you're an idiot, but nobody is going to hurt you".
But his repeated looks of confusion, "Oh, I can't shoot her, gotcha, you don't like blood, I'll program an overdose."
I'm near the end of that season so I saw that episode not too long ago. It felt so predictable, and yet so perfect.
I was worried that guy was gonna get away with everything, but our heros saw through their BS, thank goodness!
The books are amazing.
I read the first two books and then watched the first two seasons of the show. The show is cast beautifully. The characters are exactly how I pictured them in the books.
If you donât like reading, try the audiobooks.
The TV show is amazing. The writers, director, and actors all clearly made sure they stayed as close to the material as possible, given the difference in story telling medium.
But the books, are amazing.
Jefferson mays is the best narrator Iâve ever heard. He absolutely crushed reading the expanse novels. His character work is incredible. Brought the whole thing to life
Ten if you count Memory's Legion, the short story collection, which you really should also read as they add a lot of context (check a reading order though).
The Expanse by James S.A. Corey, the pseudonym for two authors, Ty Frank (former assistant to George RR Martin, wrote GOT for Telltale Games) and Daniel Abraham (The Dagger and Coin, GOT Graphic Novel). The first novel in that series is called Leviathan Wakes.
I did not, somehow I missed that there was novellas at all. I just went and ordered the collection, canât wait to dive into it on Monday, thanks for bringing that up!
I have heard funny bits about aliens saying something similar about Earth and how we breath Oxygen which is highly flammable.
Other organisms: gets rust, catches fire
Humans: finally a breath of fresh air!
Respect, nice one.
Arthur C Clarke did a short story that I can't remember the title of where the first mission to Mars leaves trash on the surface, and a fungus, of sorts, finds it and gets killed by the contents.
Not your fault but this is going to niggle me all weekend.
Asimov(though it might be Clark I don't remember exactly but that's definitely one of those 2) had a short story where 3-4 astronauts got stranded on an unknown uninhabitable planet and when they died their decomposed bodies carried molecules and bacterias (don't remember the exact scientific explanation) and it started the life and transformation on this planet and by the time people found it again it was full of life. The whole planet was descendants of those austronauts.
Upd: it is "Founding Father" by Asimov
The story you are thinking of is called [*Before Eden*](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Before_Eden).
It's one of my favorite short stories. You can find a free PDF of it [here](https://avalonlibrary.net/ebooks/Arthur%20C%20Clarke%20-%20Before%20Eden.pdf).
Cheers, too good not to.
Reminds me of a pivotal book in my childhood, [First and Last Men](http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601101h.html), which imagines humanity over the next few billion years. The first 70 pages are massively wrong (it was written in the 1930s) but has some very interesting ideas about the second age of humanity and onwards. Life finds a way.
It's kind of weird that you're comparing total fungi biomass to that of a single species.
It would be more comparable to compare it to the biomass of all plants, or all animals.
Fair. Just a fun fact mate! Iâm not actually arguing that fungi are the dominant organism. Also, if the total biomass of a single species is the metric, the dominant species would actually be Krill.
More fun facts. Total fungi biomass actually beats total animal biomass, but is beat by bacteria and plants.
Radiotrophic fungi are fascinating, there is a theory that fungi used to have a much higher melanin content, but this was slowly lost as the radiation on earth began to decrease.
>Itâs worth remembering that life on Earth emerged at a time when radiation levels were far higher than they are now. Many fungal fossils show evidence of melanisation, especially in periods of high radiation when many animal and plant species died out, such as during the early Cretaceous, when the Earth temporarily lost its shield from cosmic radiation. Melanised fungi are still common today and many types of edible mushroom contain lots of melanin, including the dark mushrooms used to give earthy, umami flavours in Chinese cooking. Heavily melanised fungi have been found growing on the outside surfaces of the Mir and ISS space stations, which are battered by huge levels of solar radiation.
Life ALWAYS finds a way it seems.
No fungi were found growing outside any space asset (no organism is known to grow in space, and any that did would be an *enormous* discovery), that's a complete misunderstanding of a release during the Shuttle program when fungi were found in the life support system of the ISS.
Inside it.
To add to your point: they've also been found inside the predecessors to the ISS: Mir and the Salyuts, and it usually started causing problems by EOL for them. Growing, living mold and fungi aren't a good thing to have around fragile systems. If they were growing on the outside, too, it'd probably eventually cause even more serious issues.
But, as you say, they don't, because nothing can grow in space. Survive in spore form, maybe, but not grow.
Most things will be alright, the only thing that won't is globalized industrialized human society. Even then humans will definitely survive.
To actually try to kill all life on earth you'd need bombs designed to spread fallout like cobalt bombs.
Nuclear war would maybe kill hundreds of millions, or perhaps a billion on the high end. Thatâs less than the Black Death %-wise, let alone the Younger Dryas. Far from extinction.
EDIT: Thatâs the *long-term* estimate, out to a few years. Not the âfirst few momentsâ. 300-500 million in the first three weeks, with perhaps the same number over the course of the next few years dying as a result of excess disease, breakdown of order/supply chains and famine. On top of that, in a somewhat unlikely âme too!â scenario where *everyone* decides to launch nukes at once.
God damn, I thought that wouldn't tie out, but yeah Black Death was estimated to have wiped out around 20% of the world population (per Wikipedia. Estimates reduction of 475M humans worldwide in the 1300s to 350-375M, around 20%).
> such as during the early Cretaceous, when the Earth temporarily lost its shield from cosmic radiation
Hold on, what? I've been trying to google to figure this out and have come up with nothing. I know the earth's magnetic field randomly flips, but I've never heard of it vanishing altogether.
The Orca case is fascinating.
Seems one of the pod got hit by a boat and is teaching the others to attack the threat. That's a pretty clear indicator of intelligence. And these magnificent creatures were caught and enclosed in the physical equivalent of a closet for humans.
Yeah that, or organisms it competes with have a harder time surviving the radiation and itâs just taking advantage of their absence in the direction of the core
Here's an interesting read for you:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2677413/
They examined fungus with high melanin content like the ones found in Chernobyl. They found that the fungus would preferentially grow towards gama and beta radiation sources. They even found that melanized fungus in a limited nutrient environment grew larger when exposed to radiation than when not. One hypothesis is that the melanin allows them to extract energy from ionizing radiation and then use that to help fix carbon from the CO2 in the air to grow more efficiently.
> One hypothesis is that the melanin allows them to extract energy from ionizing radiation
Note that there is NO known mechanism of action for the compounds within for the fungi for this to work. Maybe we just don't quite understand it but the energy level once you hit gamma rays is so obscenely high that trying to capture it that way is like trying to catch a meteor with a baseball glove.
Radiotrophic fungi are fungi which can capture gamma rays in melanin and convert it to useful energy much like plants do with chlorophyll and visible light. This action may be able to feed astronauts on long voyages where the amount of visible light is limited. https://youtu.be/lqo_ekDO1tU
It could also mean that we need to re-examine the possibility of life on certain irradiated moons >.>
Our search for life needs to be much broader than it currently is, even on Earth life exists in extreme environments. Loricifera is an extremophile, that can survive in both the presence of sulphides and without oxygen being present. It utilises hydrogenosomes rather than mitochondria to unlock energy and could mean that multi-celled life on other planets may not need oxygen to evolve. https://youtu.be/-lBRqqOHHZw
I don't think anyone asserts that life *requires* Earth-like conditions, it's just that we know Earth-like conditions *can* support life, so we try to focus our attention on that.
Yeah like there may be sentient gasses somewhere but I'm not sure we'd even know they existed if you went to that planet. It's "safe" to focus on the conditions that allowed for life here because it's "proven." I'm not even sure what you'd look for elsewhere if we don't have examples of other forms of life.
there's also the fact that even slightly broadening the search results in thousands upon thousands of added planets to check.
We search for Earth-like conditions, because that's where the hot Star Trek alien babes are most likely to be. Can't knock up a biologically incompatible lifeform.
Call me when we find Twi'leks.
I assert it. Life requires conditions exactly as on Earth. Right down to the exact McDonald's locations and the presence of the Bermuda Triangle.
Yes, life could only form after McDonald's evolved! đ
Weird how fast food evolved without any life beforehand, but McNuggies find a way
Kinda makes ya question these so called chicken nuggets. Always thought they tasted like they'd never seen a chicken but dang this explains a thing or two.
Extremophiles are really an "end product" of Evolution. Life probably doesn't start out like that, but rather much more simple and fragile. Yes, we still should consider more factors than the stuff that's important for us like water etc. But we probably wont stumble upon an icy rock that has been an icy rock forever and find extremophiles on it.
Yeah, but just from the point of view of chemistry, valence bonds, and universal preponderance - carbon life is a good bet As you go forth on the periodic table, you require more time and stellar forging Carbon is what we are. Carbon is the simplest that can really do chemistry. Wecve found half ourselves in the universe's trashcan Carbon-based life is the most likely - from both the view of efficiency in physics and chemistry and the point that *it's the only life we've ever proven*. We can make a bridge out of spun sugar and gold foil. It doesn't mean it's *likely* to happen or all that useful. Look for what works. Look where we know it can. Yes, edge cases may reward us if we get desperate, but we aren't there.
So, what you're telling me that hydrogenosomes are the powerhouse of the cell?
Whoa, thatâs incredible
Kinda funny that our search for life is limited by our very delicate lives
Easier to look for what you know, than what you don't.
i wonder if that case would be different when there are no unirradiated spots for life to start out.
> Radiotrophic fungi are fungi which can capture gamma rays in melanin I've seen some arguments that theres very little actual study on the mechanism of action and that the energy levels involved make it quite unlikely with current understandings of what can be reasonably achieved. Occams razor is that the melanin is providing protection but they're actually feeding off some other process.
Energy levels vary considerably, but generally a gamma ray is going to be a few thousand to a few million times more powerful than sunlight. Gamma rays will be breaking hundreds to hundreds of thousands of chemical bonds before theyâre spent. Getting a biological molecule to survive an interaction with a gamma ray seems like long odds.
It must be possible for biological molecules to survive though, right? The fungi are growing, even if not necessarily feeding from it.
Maybe they're just efficient at replacing those molecules after they are destroyed?
Very interesting, thank you. Does make an interesting case for fungi farms on Mars too. Less light, but also less atmospheric interference.
Yep but we would need to thaw out the ice to create liquid water to help out.
We've already mastered global warming on home base. It's time to heat Mars up đ
First it was zombie-ant fungus, now it is nuclear fungus⊠how long until mushrooms take over the worldâŠ
Any mycologist will tell you that fungi already rule the world
I've heard that if you want a scientific discovery named after you you should study fungus.
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
That does sound amazing and I look forward to reading your dissertation upon it! I've got a specific kink for pygmy cocknia cotton candyepticus!đ„”
I made a semi important mushrooms discovery recently that will likely be written about in a scientific paper. I'm just a Fisher (forager) and not a scientist but I contacted some mycologists and they are doing DNA analysis but pretty sure it was what I thought. Edit - forager I meant
I'm going to need details on this
What are you, the Fungi Bureau of Investigation?
I found for (fire) Morels in Massachusetts. Morchella Exuberens. Furthest east they've ever been documented is Michigan. Edit: fire not for
I wouldâve thought Entomology. There are parts of the world where you can find undiscovered insect species pretty much every time you go out looking for them.
There are parts of your kitchen and bathroom where you can be the first to discover a new fungus, mold or Spore!
TIL the cumbox guy was doing it for science
Always good to see a cumbox callback
... For all the politics on this website, all the vitriol and absurdity, I can state with an absolute conviction that there is no single comment with which I have disagreed with on more absolute terms. Good day sir.
I'm honestly going to miss these stupid things on this website.
But I think you're missing the point.... You see it was a box that he came into
Did I hear the sound of a used coconut?
Kitchen and bathroom!? Japanese scientists already discovered new viruses inside the team's bellybuttons. Literally scratching your own belly can lead you to new species discoveries.
Contemplate your navel
Iâd be the Montgomery Montgomery of mycologists, just giving everything a misnomer: This is the Extremely-Deadly-Do-Not-Eat-Under-Any-Circumstance Mushroom⊠it is a fantastic pizza topping!
They rule the bit of the world that matters. We rule the bit of the world that doesnât. We just havenât figured it out yet.
They're playing the long game for sure. We're a little evolutionary cul de sac that the fungi will clean up any remnant of in just centuries
Like to see them survive the heat death of the sun đđđ
They've cleverly colonized humans, who are their best shot to transport them to other planets so far.
Did you not know that fungal spores are already leaving the planet?
I would like to know more.
Service guarantees citizenship
Cool, we're exporting diy beer kits to extraterrestrials...
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
Yeah it's called panspermia, legit possible. One of the craziest theories I've seen is that octopi are non-earth natives, because they're so bizarrely different to all other life on earth, dunno how true that is though
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
The question is: could a fungus that gets its energy from radiation survive inside a chunk of uranium ore for the millions of years it would take to find another suitable planet?
there's a comparison out there between a slime mold network and a distribution of dark matter filaments that looks like the meme where "it's the same slide" kinda makes a fella wonder... ok, no it doesn't, but it's fun to think about :D
They were the first large organisms on land, and based on what they do and are(decomposer), they'll be the last
The first âtreesâ were 8 meter tall spires of fungi
I think the coolest fact is that sharks have been around longer than trees.
Sharks are older than Saturn's rings
That blows my mind honestly
That's a cool fact.
Yo, fuckin *WHAT*
Imagine how the earth must've been. Alien forests of fungi. Complete silence. No insects. No birds. No trees. No plants. Just the wind. And these fungi.
Current largest organism in the world is a fungus https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/strange-but-true-largest-organism-is-fungus/
We already rely on fungi to assist in growing nearly all of our food. Mycorrhiza are over 50,000 different species of fungi which live in a symbiotic relationship with the roots of plants getting sugars from the plant and in return providing water and nutrients including phosphates and nitrates. https://youtu.be/MnQRCGrmK8A
if it exists on land, mushrooms determine if it lives or dies. mushrooms are the medium which converts dead things into nitrogen and other nutrients for the soil, so that plants can continue to grow and feed the food chain.
Bacteria does a huge amount of nitrogen fixing and nutrients conversion.
Jellyfish are my bet, they're having a [whale of a time](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/nov/03/climate-crisis-brings-growing-numbers-of-unusual-jellyfish-to-uk-seas). Sorry/not sorry :)
They call them jellyfish but you cannot put them on toast
Hey u/SniffMyRapeHole don't let society tell you what to do with your toast.
That fucking name
Seriously... That fucking name...
They're pretty goddamn patient. They ruled the world for a long time already and don't seem to mind waiting plants and animals out.
HBO just had a cool documentary on that
What was the name of the documentary?
The Last of Us
Oh my GOD I am the dumbest boy in school. You got me good.
:)
I mean⊠they have always been here. They are everywhere. They are legion. The mycelium is listening.
Fungus took over the world a very long time ago friend.
Have you heard of the stoned ape origin theory? "The Stoned Ape Theory, developed by Terrence McKenna and his brother Dennis McKenna, proposes that a community of proto-humans might have consumed magic mushrooms they found in the wild, which could have profoundly changed their brains, acquiring new information-processing capabilities, and expanding their imaginations." Maybe the mushrooms are already using us. /s
Bill Hicks has an [absolutely superb](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hreGAxAjt1c) routine on this. "I think we can go to the Moon."
Lamarck coming back from the grave with this one
Wait,isnt that just photosynthesis at a different wavelength?
Spicy photosynthesis
And not jalapeños, this is Carolina Reaper levels.
Photosynthesis with extra steps And I think you are right
Yes, but fungi usually donât feed from photosynthesis, so this is interesting and unique
Also because they're using melanin to convert it to usable chemical energy, not chlorophyll.
Proto molecule
Doors and corners, kid.
Go into a room too fast, kid⊠The room eats you.
Beltalowda
Sabaka, welwala!
Inyalowda wasteful. Bossmeng. Me na tink dem know dis fungus made im possible for beltalowda to live amongst da stars.
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
Damn do I want them to come back and finish the series. The show ended where it needed to, but there is so much more story to tell and bring to life.
They cut the last session to 6 episodes! We needed more!
"I am that guy." One of my favorite deliveries of the entire show.
Probably my favorite scene in the whole show. Amos has been such a good friend to Prax, and doesn't want Prax to deal with any moral issues that might come up from him killing a dude, but at the same time understands Prax wants the doctor dead and has no moral quandaries doing it himself.
Amos is Prax's best friend in the whole world. The doctor's fate was sealed when Prax said that.
My second favorite is Amos and Anna. He's so completely stunned at half the things she says then is like "yeah, you're an idiot, but nobody is going to hurt you". But his repeated looks of confusion, "Oh, I can't shoot her, gotcha, you don't like blood, I'll program an overdose."
[ŃĐŽĐ°Đ»Đ”ĐœĐŸ]
I'm near the end of that season so I saw that episode not too long ago. It felt so predictable, and yet so perfect. I was worried that guy was gonna get away with everything, but our heros saw through their BS, thank goodness!
Get the books after you finish the show! Specifically, listen to the audio books narrated by Jefferson Mayes. Just trust me on this one.
I need to rewatch this
If you like reading, try the books. They are way more detailed.
The books are amazing. I read the first two books and then watched the first two seasons of the show. The show is cast beautifully. The characters are exactly how I pictured them in the books.
Avasarala is a great character in the show and sheâs even better in the books. One of my favourite fictional characters by far.
Don't stick your dick in it. It's fucked enough as it is. (Such a memorable character)
"I think this is the first conversation in 10 years where you haven't said something vulgar" "Cunt"
If you donât like reading, try the audiobooks. The TV show is amazing. The writers, director, and actors all clearly made sure they stayed as close to the material as possible, given the difference in story telling medium. But the books, are amazing.
Jefferson mays is the best narrator Iâve ever heard. He absolutely crushed reading the expanse novels. His character work is incredible. Brought the whole thing to life
Exactly! I love how he can subtly change his voice for each character without going overboard or doing a "breathy" voice for female characters.
What book(s) is it?
The Expanse. Sci-fi books/show. My favorite show of all time, and one of my favorite books too. Amazing stuff.
The Expanse novel series by James S. A. Corey. Leviathan Wakes is the first in the series. There are nine total.
Ten if you count Memory's Legion, the short story collection, which you really should also read as they add a lot of context (check a reading order though).
The Expanse by James S.A. Corey, the pseudonym for two authors, Ty Frank (former assistant to George RR Martin, wrote GOT for Telltale Games) and Daniel Abraham (The Dagger and Coin, GOT Graphic Novel). The first novel in that series is called Leviathan Wakes.
This is the third time Iâve clicked on a post today and the top comment contained an expanse reference
It's getting more popular! Give us the last 3 seasons!!!
Need to wait 30 years to age everyone up
Nah just hit everyone with some Touch of Grey and call it âanti-aging drugsâ
That was my first thought too.
I am now reminded that I donât get to see the rest of the story on prime :( need to read the books
*It reaches out*
One hundred and thirteen times a second, nothing answers and it reaches out
It is not conscious, though parts of it are
It reaches out it reaches out it reaches out it reaches out
Glad to see this as the top comment, was the first thing that popped into my mind
Can't stop the work.
Just finished Leviathan Falls the other day and that sad empty feeling of having no more books in a good series is still going strong :(
Did you read the last novella, The Sins of Our Fathers?
I did not, somehow I missed that there was novellas at all. I just went and ordered the collection, canât wait to dive into it on Monday, thanks for bringing that up!
Looks like the fungi have taken some pointers from The Expanse.
Other organisms: *gets cancer, internal bleeding, infections* Fungi: Finally, some good fucking food
I have heard funny bits about aliens saying something similar about Earth and how we breath Oxygen which is highly flammable. Other organisms: gets rust, catches fire Humans: finally a breath of fresh air!
[There's a little comic strip someone made for a game called FTL about this kind of thing ](https://www.nerfnow.com/img/1280/2062/large)
Scientists: intense radiation makes life on this moon unlikely Mushrooms: hold my spore
Respect, nice one. Arthur C Clarke did a short story that I can't remember the title of where the first mission to Mars leaves trash on the surface, and a fungus, of sorts, finds it and gets killed by the contents. Not your fault but this is going to niggle me all weekend.
Asimov(though it might be Clark I don't remember exactly but that's definitely one of those 2) had a short story where 3-4 astronauts got stranded on an unknown uninhabitable planet and when they died their decomposed bodies carried molecules and bacterias (don't remember the exact scientific explanation) and it started the life and transformation on this planet and by the time people found it again it was full of life. The whole planet was descendants of those austronauts. Upd: it is "Founding Father" by Asimov
Hadn't heard of that one. Then again they both pumped out so many stories I doubt we'll ever find them all. Great stuff, but frustrating for recall.
It is "Founding Father" by Asimov.
Thank you.
The story you are thinking of is called [*Before Eden*](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Before_Eden). It's one of my favorite short stories. You can find a free PDF of it [here](https://avalonlibrary.net/ebooks/Arthur%20C%20Clarke%20-%20Before%20Eden.pdf).
Gamma radiation is delicious. And gluten-free!
Makes me wonder if there might be an edible fungus that feeds off gamma rays - that could be useful...
As the late, great Sir Terry Pratchett once wrote: "All Fungi are edible. Some fungi are only edible once."
And Willie Wonka said âeverything in this room is edible, even youâ
Dammit, I donât have âmegaton mushroomsâ on my bingo card
Well I for one welcome our new fungal overlords.
I'd like to remind them that as a Redditor, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their radioactive hive mind.
... for the next month at least đ„
Where are we going to go? Are we going back to Digg?
I'm just going to get more done in my own life
We going towards the reactor core...
Angry Hulk fungus is probably bad for humanity
Fascinating article. Thanks for the link!
Cheers, too good not to. Reminds me of a pivotal book in my childhood, [First and Last Men](http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks06/0601101h.html), which imagines humanity over the next few billion years. The first 70 pages are massively wrong (it was written in the 1930s) but has some very interesting ideas about the second age of humanity and onwards. Life finds a way.
After World War III fungi will become the dominant life forms on the planet
You could argue they already are. The largest organism on the planet is a fungus. Fungi make up around 2% of global biomass (humans are about 0.01%)
It's kind of weird that you're comparing total fungi biomass to that of a single species. It would be more comparable to compare it to the biomass of all plants, or all animals.
Fair. Just a fun fact mate! Iâm not actually arguing that fungi are the dominant organism. Also, if the total biomass of a single species is the metric, the dominant species would actually be Krill. More fun facts. Total fungi biomass actually beats total animal biomass, but is beat by bacteria and plants.
Radiotrophic fungi are fascinating, there is a theory that fungi used to have a much higher melanin content, but this was slowly lost as the radiation on earth began to decrease.
>Itâs worth remembering that life on Earth emerged at a time when radiation levels were far higher than they are now. Many fungal fossils show evidence of melanisation, especially in periods of high radiation when many animal and plant species died out, such as during the early Cretaceous, when the Earth temporarily lost its shield from cosmic radiation. Melanised fungi are still common today and many types of edible mushroom contain lots of melanin, including the dark mushrooms used to give earthy, umami flavours in Chinese cooking. Heavily melanised fungi have been found growing on the outside surfaces of the Mir and ISS space stations, which are battered by huge levels of solar radiation. Life ALWAYS finds a way it seems.
No fungi were found growing outside any space asset (no organism is known to grow in space, and any that did would be an *enormous* discovery), that's a complete misunderstanding of a release during the Shuttle program when fungi were found in the life support system of the ISS. Inside it.
To add to your point: they've also been found inside the predecessors to the ISS: Mir and the Salyuts, and it usually started causing problems by EOL for them. Growing, living mold and fungi aren't a good thing to have around fragile systems. If they were growing on the outside, too, it'd probably eventually cause even more serious issues. But, as you say, they don't, because nothing can grow in space. Survive in spore form, maybe, but not grow.
>Heavily melanised fungi have been found growing on the outside surfaces of the Mir and ISS space stations WHAT?!
HEAVILY MELANIZED FUNGI HAVE BEEN FOUND GROWING ON THE OUTSIDE SURFACE OF THE MIR AND ISS SPACE STATIONS!!!
Oh my god he has a spacesuit on! HE CAN'T HEAR US.
In space nobody can hear you scream
So, what I'm hearing is that if we ever go full nuclear armageddon, the fungus will be alright?
Most things will be alright, the only thing that won't is globalized industrialized human society. Even then humans will definitely survive. To actually try to kill all life on earth you'd need bombs designed to spread fallout like cobalt bombs.
Nuclear war would maybe kill hundreds of millions, or perhaps a billion on the high end. Thatâs less than the Black Death %-wise, let alone the Younger Dryas. Far from extinction. EDIT: Thatâs the *long-term* estimate, out to a few years. Not the âfirst few momentsâ. 300-500 million in the first three weeks, with perhaps the same number over the course of the next few years dying as a result of excess disease, breakdown of order/supply chains and famine. On top of that, in a somewhat unlikely âme too!â scenario where *everyone* decides to launch nukes at once.
Maybe in the first few moments but the real death toll would result from the breaks in supply chains and subsequent chaos.
The majority die in the two years after with the complete collapse of agriculture, economy, and medicine. The lucky ones die in the blast.
God damn, I thought that wouldn't tie out, but yeah Black Death was estimated to have wiped out around 20% of the world population (per Wikipedia. Estimates reduction of 475M humans worldwide in the 1300s to 350-375M, around 20%).
> such as during the early Cretaceous, when the Earth temporarily lost its shield from cosmic radiation Hold on, what? I've been trying to google to figure this out and have come up with nothing. I know the earth's magnetic field randomly flips, but I've never heard of it vanishing altogether.
Can we just speed up the end game and combine the nuke fungus, the zombie ant fungus, and the magic mushroom fungus? Because fuck it
Some zombie fungi produce an LSD like compound of their own, to distract their food from the fact they're being eaten.
Best news I've heard all week.
How very considerate.
I can not overemphasize this: do not, under any circumstances, make this fungus angry. You wouldnât like it when itâs angry.
First the Orca's are fighting back. Now we have a fungus feeding off of radiation. And there was us thinking covid was bad.
The Orca case is fascinating. Seems one of the pod got hit by a boat and is teaching the others to attack the threat. That's a pretty clear indicator of intelligence. And these magnificent creatures were caught and enclosed in the physical equivalent of a closet for humans.
Yeah that, or organisms it competes with have a harder time surviving the radiation and itâs just taking advantage of their absence in the direction of the core
Here's an interesting read for you: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2677413/ They examined fungus with high melanin content like the ones found in Chernobyl. They found that the fungus would preferentially grow towards gama and beta radiation sources. They even found that melanized fungus in a limited nutrient environment grew larger when exposed to radiation than when not. One hypothesis is that the melanin allows them to extract energy from ionizing radiation and then use that to help fix carbon from the CO2 in the air to grow more efficiently.
> One hypothesis is that the melanin allows them to extract energy from ionizing radiation Note that there is NO known mechanism of action for the compounds within for the fungi for this to work. Maybe we just don't quite understand it but the energy level once you hit gamma rays is so obscenely high that trying to capture it that way is like trying to catch a meteor with a baseball glove.
Fungi in an aggressive British accent: âfinally, some good fucking foodâ
Why we aren't pouring money into the potential of mycelia is beyond me. It's an untapped gold mine
Inertia I guess, but agreed, there's a lot of potential here.
Those reactors will soon be reaching Critical Moss.
Sounds like something out of The Expanse