Science fiction writers have long put forward different versions of what aliens from outer space will look like. What kind of images have not been invented: from intelligent reptilians to stone-eaters on a silicon base. But it is quite possible that reality will surpass the wildest fantasies.
In the early 2000s, during one of the routine monitoring of the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant using a robot, inspectors discovered a strange black plaque on the inner walls of the sarcophagus, which had not been there before. Samples of the black plaque taken by the robot were sent to a laboratory, from where surprising results came: upon closer examination, this plaque turned out to be a living thing, namely the mold Cladosporium sphaerospermum.
The radical black color was given to her by the melanin pigment, the same one that makes white people tanned (and blacks black). Scientists hypothesized that the fungus was "tanned" for the same purposes as people - to protect against radiation, especially since over the past fifteen years, scientists from the Kiev Institute of Microbiology and Virology. D. K. Zabolotny National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine studied colonies of fungi with an increased amount of melanin, living in the soils around the sarcophagus. However, in reality, everything turned out to be much more surprising.
Chernobyl mushrooms
In 2007, a group of researchers from New York College of Medicine. Albert Einstein, under the guidance of Professor of Nuclear Medicine and Radiochemistry Yekaterina Dadacheva, published in the scientific journal PLOS One an article “Ionizing radiation changes the electronic characteristics of melanin and accelerates the growth of melanized fungi” with truly sensational findings. Scientists have experimented with the melanin-containing fungi Wangiella dermatitidis, Cryptococcus neoformans and the very "Chernobyl" Cladosporium sphaerospermum - and found that they not only resist the harmful effects of ionizing radiation, but also grow under the influence of radiation much better than without it!
An increase in the radiation level by a factor of 500 caused a threefold acceleration in the growth of biomass (in comparison with non-irradiated or non-melanized fungi of the same species). And the "Chernobyl" Cladosporium sphaerospermum showed an even more interesting effect: radiation accelerated their growth even under conditions when the amount of nutrients was limited. However, at first it was not clear whether mold learned to use gamma radiation, like plants do light, for photosynthesis (more precisely, radio synthesis), or simply uses ionization energy to accelerate normal heterotrophic nutrition.
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Delicious radiation
The mold immediately began to be mercilessly tormented in many scientific laboratories, and it seems that scientists still managed to knock out a frank confession from it. According to a study published in 2011 in the journal Bioelectrochemistry of the American Savannah River National Laboratory, "Gamma radiation interacts with melanin, changing its redox potential, and produces an electric current," the cunning fungus, apparently, still manages to use energy radiation, although the details of the molecular processes occurring during this are still unknown.
To the stars
If these conclusions are confirmed, then in addition to far-reaching consequences (both fundamental - in the field of biology and radiochemistry, and quite applied - in the field of materials science), this may turn our understanding of such an area as long-distance space travel.
After all, this discovery actually deletes from the list of necessary prerequisites for a highly developed life such a requirement as being in the habitable zone.
Serious doubts about these aspects began to appear for a long time, especially after the discovery of ecosystems around "black smokers" - hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor. There, in eternal darkness, photosynthesis is impossible, so bacteria that carry out chemosynthesis form the basis of the food chain. The bacteria get their energy by oxidizing chemicals emitted from the source, such as hydrogen sulfide. It makes sense to look for such ecosystems in the subglacial oceans of Europe (the satellite of Jupiter).
However, the limitation of chemosynthesis is obvious: chemical fuel (even as tasteless as hydrogen sulfide) has an unpleasant feature of quickly running out - sometimes much faster than the unfortunate inhabitants have time to evolve and invent communism, electrification, or at least rockets in order to escape before it's too late. Not to mention the fact that hydrothermal vents require volcanic activity, which is not always present: Europe most likely has it, but Mars does not. Radiation does not require a planet at all!
Living ships
Such reasoning leads us to the concept of a "living ship". One of her most famous illustrations is Lexx from the science fiction series of the same name, which shows the advantages of this approach, in particular, the ability to self-repair and reproduce. As you can see, nature has already taken steps in the right direction. Fungal cells are equipped with a chitinous membrane, and this is an excellent structural material in capable hands (crustaceans, insects and arachnids will not let you lie).
Astronauts of the future may find it very useful building materials that can repair themselves in case of damage, multiply by spores, complete new sections of space debris and waste on the fly, and, among other things, feed the crew (if part of the biomass produced is edible). And even take on medical functions due to natural antibiotic activity - and this is not at all out of place if the nearest pharmacy with penicillin remained light years behind the stern! But will people command such a ship … or the evolved mold, in the mycelium of which the inclinations of a space conqueror are still dormant?
Evgeny Zloradsky