I want to start with the most surprising fact about them: they don't just SURVIVE in high radiation environments, they grow at *FOUR TIMES* the rate they would in background radiation.
Our best guess is they're "eating" radiation.
The key is melanin, similar to the melanin that darkens your skin & protects you from UV damage. It's a dark, high molecular weight pigment polymer, absorbing 99.9% of UV & visible light.
Ionizing radiation beyond UV can change the electronic/chemical structure of melanin, making it act similar to chlorophyll in its ability to capture photons and generate electron gradients.
Given these electron gradients and a carbon source, the fungi can synthesize basic nutrients, or metabolize environmental nutrients at a greater rate.
In 1986, dark, melanin-producing (melanotic) fungi were found on the walls of the Chernobyl reactor & in the cooling tower water. Samples of these fungi, when exposed to a radiation source, were observed to grow TOWARDS the source, along a gradient of increasing gamma exposure.
Other melanotic fungi have been found growing freely on Mir and ISS space stations, where radiation limits human habitation length.
They're also found in the mountains of Antarctica, suggesting the melanin is providing protection from cold or desiccation or simply the unshielded UV exposure of the South Polar region.
Space colonization might well benefit from a radiation shield that can be grown on other worlds from regolith and ionizing radiation, or protect travelers in transit.
A 3 in (9 cm) layer of Martian regolith colonized by these fungi would effectively absorb most or all of the damaging radiation at the Martian surface.
All of this is hypothetical, of course, but certainly piques my curiosity.
Some interesting sources to start your own exploration:
"Ionizing Radiation: how fungi cope, adapt, and exploit with the help of melanin"
Curr Opin Microbiol. 2008 Dec; 11(6): 525–531. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/P…
Famed population geneticist RA Fisher published this paper in 1936 taking Mendel to task for either concealing, cherry-picking, or omitting parts of his study of pea genetics.
1. The segregation ratios (as in 'Mendelian ratios') are too perfect. Actual observations are modified by noise and distortion, only land on the 3:1, 1:2:1 ratios in extremely large samples sizes of ideal, perfect genetic models.
I want to talk about the Map-Territory Relation in #science & why it matters to many topics in public perception of science.
It's what I think of when people insist that 'science says there are only two genders'.
Maybe you've seen this work by René Magritte, called "The Treachery of Images". The text translates: "this is not a pipe".
It's not. It's an IMAGE of a pipe. It only resembles an actual pipe in one very specific way, from a particular angle, in 2-D.
Like this PICTURE of a pipe, a scientific model or system of classification is by nature a SIMPLIFICATION.
British statistician George Box: "Essentially, all models are wrong, but some are useful. However, the approximate nature of the model must always be borne in mind."
But the most interesting story about Benjamin Franklin I've run across is the giant pit filled with human bones that was recently (1997) found in his basement.
Really.
A giant pit of human bones. The remains of at least 28 bodies. In his basement. Cut up with a saw.
Ben Franklin lived at 36 Craven Street in London (now the 'Benjamin Franklin House & Museum').
Workers doing renovations found the bones in a buried pit in the basement, remains including those of infants.
He had a special arrangement with a friend of a friend, William Hewson, now called the "Father of Hematology" for his discovery of blood composition and fibrin.
Hewson operated an "anatomy school" in Ben Franklin's garden (back yard) where students dissected cadavers.
He had an acknowledged illegitimate son, William, who was the last British governor of New Jersey & chief Loyalist, running pro-British military operations from his base in New York.
He died in exile. But HE had an illegitimate son...
William Temple Franklin was William's illegitimate son, born while William was in law school, London.
"Temple" accompanied his GRANDFATHER Benjamin & acted as his secretary, worked on Treaty of Paris where France recognized USA.
Brief return to US, then rest of life in France.
Temple had an illegitimate son, Théodore, but he died before the age of 5, and an illegitimate daughter, Ellen Franklin Hanbury, who was raised by HER grandfather William.
Ellen married but had no children, so this particular chain of Franklin Bastards reaches its end.
My hypothesis:
Humans invented hats because we were envious of the marvelous headgear in the animal world.
Let's talk about antlers, horns, ossicones & pronghorns.
#Antlers are shed & regrown every year, composed of bone that begins at a pedicle, base structure that remains after shedding. Antlers are extensions of the the skull.
Mechanism of growth similar to bone HEALING: cartilaginous tissue gives rise to bone coated in skin "velvet".
Antlers usually only form on males, with one exception: female reindeer grow shortened antlers, which may be functional for snow clearing, or challenge between females over scarce food resources.