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

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.

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

I few months ago I learnt something related that may be a common knowledge to many here. I feel silly that I didn't know.

Earth had a plastic like problem before. There were no fungi that eat cellulose so dead trees were just piling up without degrading. Those trees turned into ~petroleum~ coal that we consume now.

That trees somehow turned into ~petroleum~ coal, I learnt in school. I used to imagine trees were somehow buried under stand suddenly and before they could be degraded they turned into ~petroleum~ coal under heavy pressure.

You mean coal. Petroleum was from the dead animals from millions of years ago.