Re: Re: [Aroid-l] OT: Fungi that eat ionizing radiation?

**<g*@bellsouth.net>**

I beleive they are discussing this  right now on NPR.If you hurry you may be able to here the rest of the broadcast.
Garland
> 
> From: ted.held@us.henkel.com
> Date: 2007/05/24 Thu AM 10:37:39 EDT
> To: Discussion of aroids <aroid-l@gizmoworks.com>
> Subject: Re: [Aroid-l] OT: Fungi that eat ionizing radiation?
> 
> I looked a little at this reference and I am putting myself down as a 
> skeptic. This paper looks to have been published without peer review 
> through funding from George Soros. Neither of those is proof by itself, of 
> course, but it makes the scientifically minded put on the brakes a little 
> bit. I was interested in the claim that living fungi were found growing 
> inside Chernobyl and I clicked on the reference indicated in the paper, at 
> the NIH, and no article was listed there. The site was, in fact, the NIH 
> site, but there was no article. This blunder would never happen in a 
> peer-reviewed paper.
> 
> Then there's the whole idea that some living thing (defined according to 
> how that is understood by those of us who live on Earth) can not only 
> survive ionizing radiation but utilize it to perform life functions. I 
> have watched certain effects of ionizing radiation (x-rays) on formerly 
> living materials and would be surprised if melanin could even withstand 
> ionizing radiation without charring all the way to carbon, much less "eat" 
> it. Then, of course, the life form would have to have some cell structure 
> to support the melanin and make use of the energy products therefrom. Big 
> doubts.
> 
> Ionizing radiation is severe stuff. And my understanding of the Chernobyl 
> reactor is that it is now encased in concrete and nobody with any sense 
> goes anywhere near it. But they have robots in there that are able to 
> retrieve samples? And some researchers at Albert Einstein have these 
> samples and are conducting research, also using ionizing radiation? And 
> word of such a discovery did not make it onto the evening news?
> 
> I don't have time to pursue this further, but it smells like "fringe" 
> science. That is to say, a hoax. There is a lot of this kind of stuff on 
> the internet. You have to be careful.
> 
> Ted.
> 
> 
> 
> Steve Marak <samarak@gizmoworks.com> 
> Sent by: aroid-l-bounces@gizmoworks.com
> 05/24/2007 12:03 AM
> Please respond to
> Discussion of aroids <aroid-l@gizmoworks.com>
> 
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> To
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> Subject
> [Aroid-l] OT: Fungi that eat ionizing radiation?
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> A bit off topic, but I know others on the list like these things too ...
> 
> A post today on one of the bulb lists I follow gave a link to a
> "fascinating-if-true" paper on the possibility that some fungi can use 
> ionizing
> radiation as a direct energy source in a way similar to plant's use of 
> visible
> light. 
> 
> An abstract is at:
> 
> http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-05/aeco-erd051607.php
> 
> and the full paper seems to be available online at PLoS ONE at:
> 
> http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0000457
> 
> Ok, it's not exactly "The Blob", but the part about melanized fungi 
> colonizing
> the walls of the damaged Chernobyl reactor has at least a bit of those old
> 1960's science fiction "B" movies about it. If it were April 1, I'd assume 
> it 
> was a joke ... but I admit I hope it's true. 
> 
> Steve
> 
> -- Steve Marak
> -- samarak@gizmoworks.com
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