Maybe you forgot the city, but I'm sure that you've all heard about the meltdown of the Russian nuclear reactor in Chernobyl. Well, there's an amazing fungus that not only survives radiation guaranteed to kill any other living thing, but gets its food from it. I actually have my brother, Ethan, to thank for this story. He has been into, Russia, the Russian language, and the game S.T.A.L.K.E.R., featuring Chernobyl. He found this article with stumbleupon.
From WTNR
"There has been an exciting new biological discovery inside the tomb of the Chernobyl reactor. Like out of some B-grade sci fi movie, a robot sent into the reactor discovered a thick coat of black slime growing on the walls."
"Since it is highly radioactive in there, scientists didn't expect to find anything living, let alone thriving. The robot was instructed to obtain samples of the slime, which it did, and upon examination the slime was even more amazing than was thought at first glance."
"This slime, a collection of several fungi actually, was more than just surviving in a radioactive environment, it was actually using gamma radiation as a food source."
It's shocking that a fungus has found a way to both survive radiation, and survive off radiation.
weird russian fungi
Yeah I remember when you told me all about this. That is pretty amazing. Definitely opens your mind about new possible ways of life. What did they do with it? I assume they're studying it as we speak >_>
Not sure
I don't know. I would assume that it dies every time they take it out of the reactor.
Being deep within one of the most deadly places in the the world would make it extremely difficult to study.
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