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Fungus in Chernobyl nuclear disaster zone has mutated to 'feed' on radiation (2024)

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73 points thunderbong | 1 comments | 12 Nov 25 15:08 UTC | HN request time: 0.208s | source
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datadrivenangel ◴[12 Nov 25 15:16 UTC] No.45901233[source]▶
Life finds a way.

We're going to see an increase in plastic metabolizing bacteria as well, so eventually our plastics will 'rust' and degrade faster.

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chistev ◴[12 Nov 25 15:19 UTC] No.45901272[source]▶
I was going to ask about plastic eating microbes in my comment. Even metal eating microbes. I wonder how we'll handle that when they start destroying the foundation of civilization. Lol
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1. datadrivenangel ◴[12 Nov 25 15:22 UTC] No.45901306[source]▶
To a large extent, it probably won't be too bad because the density of plastics is still low in the general environment. If there are steep energy gradients, eventually life tends to take advantage of them.

Also there's the risk that we accidentally release some genetically modified bacteria and they prove to be hardier than expected.