Posted on 07/25/2008 2:12:31 PM PDT by forkinsocket
Deep in the radioactive bowels of the smashed Chernobyl reactor, a strange new lifeform is blooming.
TWENTY-TWO YEARS AGO, on 26 April 1986, reactor No 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, in Ukraine, blew apart, spewing radioactive dust and debris far and wide.
Ever since, a 30 km 'exclusion zone' has existed around the contaminated site, accessible to those with special clearance only. It's quite easy, then, to conjure an apocalyptic vision of the area; to imagine an eerily deserted wasteland, utterly devoid of life.
But the truth is quite the opposite. The exclusion zone is teeming with wildlife of all shapes and sizes, flourishing unhindered by human interference and seemingly unfazed by the ever-present radiation. Most remarkable, however, is not the life buzzing around the site, but what's blooming inside the perilous depths of the reactor.
Sitting at the centre of the exclusion zone, the damaged reactor unit is encased in a steel and cement sarcophagus. It's a deathly tomb that plays host to about 200 tonnes of melted radioactive fuel, and is swarming with radioactive dust.
But it's also the abode of some very hardy fungi which researchers believe aren't just tolerating the severe radiation, but actually harnessing its energy to thrive.
"Our findings suggest that [the fungi] can capture the energy from radiation and transform it into other forms of energy that can be used for growth," said microbiologist Arturo Casadevall from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York, USA.
(Excerpt) Read more at cosmosmagazine.com ...
Triffids?
cool
I wonder how much research is done at chernobyl.
There is no place else like it, and hopefully never will be.
Huh. Wouldn’t we be blessed if a treatment for radiation poisoning comes out of something so bad?.
Hmmm. Oak Ridge (TN) reservation and the quality, sought after deer hunting permits come to mind.
Grammy, I owe you freepmail. I’m going to catch up on the garden before dark (it needs help after my weeklong absence), then I’ll fm you tonight.
This sounds like the opening paragraphs of a new Michael Crichton thriller. Don’t let the fungus out!
‘Wolves Eat Dogs’ - Martin Cruz Smith
An excellent novel set smack dab in the middle of current-day Chernobyl. You’ll learn a lot and be entertained as well. :)
Yeah, to heck with the giant ants & giant grasshoppers. This is atomic athlete’s foot!
and so it began... :(
Googy...we can nuke Iran and Afghanistan and then drop some of this fungus in the area to clean up.....
LOL.
I saw this in a movie, ‘The Green Slime.’
i’m afraid that Chernobyl will be forever barren as are Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
The place will be a desolate, barren wasteland for 100,000 years!
The delusional moonbats, many with "PHD" after their names told us so, ad nauseam. That's why the US hasn't allowed new Nuclear Plants for 40 years.
Good enough for me!
< /sarc >
They are?
Damn!
Last I heard they were thriving giant cities...
We were stationed in Berlin when Chernobyl blew up, my son was born 2 weeks earlier. Scared the crap out of us.
The Andromeda Strain.
And Bikini and Enewetak atolls where many more nukes were detonated.
Bikini is now safe for diving.
Thanks for the link. Her story and photos were amazing — similar to the Ruins of Detroit but far more sad.
some background:
http://www.unu.edu/unupress/unupbooks/uu21le/uu21le0h.htm
some recent pics:
http://www.angelfire.com/extreme4/kiddofspeed/
S.T.A.L.K.E.R: Shadow of Chernobyl
“Get out of here, Stalker!”
Well...they look like this:
Except they're not supported by guy wires like the ones in the movie.
Why do the radiated fish always grow a third eye instead of a third filet? harumph
Really?
"But the truth is quite the opposite. The exclusion zone is teeming with wildlife of all shapes and sizes, flourishing unhindered by human interference and seemingly unfazed by the ever-present radiation."
please folks, i didn’t realize that i needed sarc tag.
i’ve met folks in Russia and Ukraine that claim that they were there. one elderly gent in Kiev said that he was amongst the first to arrive at the scene. i think that his drinking saved him.
as for the exclusion zone it’s filled with all kinds of a-holes and druggies that know that they wont be bothered by the militia (cops).
Now you know.
Deep in the radioactive bowels of the smashed Chernobyl reactor... some very hardy fungi which researchers believe aren't just tolerating the severe radiation, but actually harnessing its energy to thrive. "Our findings suggest that [the fungi] can capture the energy from radiation and transform it into other forms of energy that can be used for growth," said microbiologist Arturo Casadevall from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at Yeshiva University in New York, USA.
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fascinating, from microbes to fungi?
http://www.ornl.gov/sci/techresources/Human_Genome/publicat/hgn/v10n1/12deino.shtml
Superbug Survives Radiation, Eats Waste
Conan the Bacterium
A can of spoiled meat and nuclear waste may appear to have little in common, but the microbe Deinococcus radiodurans finds both environments rather cozy. Scientists hope this organism’s ability to withstand massive doses of radiation will make it a useful tool for toxic-site remediation.
Although scientists now find it in many different soil and water sites around the world, D. radiodurans was not identified until 1956. It was isolated from a can of ground beef that had been radiation sterilized but had spoiled nonetheless. Perhaps because it can efficiently repair radiation breakage of its own DNA, D. radiodurans can endure 1.5 million rads of radiation, a dose 3000 times higher than would kill organisms from microbes to humans. Scientists are unsure how this resistance evolved, although they suspect it may be a side effect of the microbe’s ability to survive periods of severe dehydration, which also fragments DNA.
Recognition of D. radiodurans’ resistance to radiation led DOE Microbial Genome Program (MGP) managers to believe the microbe could be useful in cleaning up mixed-waste sites contaminated with toxic chemicals as well as radiation. They began to fund projects to decipher the microbe’s genome and alter it to detoxify the most common chemical contaminants at these sites. Such detoxification functions might include concentrating heavy metals and breaking down organic solvents such as trichlorethylene.
Some results are reported below...
Amazing stuff! Thanks, SC!
Let me guess, you have listened to Sting’s music . . . (LOL)
Seriously, the first time I was exposed to a microwave oven I was skeered. But I finally became accustomed to them, even use them regularly now.
I would prefer to go back to a natural state, though. Although, I admit, when I am growing my own organic food, I occassionally admit defeat, and use pesticides in my battle against the imported Japaneze beetle.
It always amazes me how much scientists “know”. Just like they told us that it would take forever for Mt. St. Helens to recover. shaking head. People don’t understand that weeds and grasses were perfectly designed to do exactly what thye do—find a bare patch of dirt and grow like...weeds. Once you have weeds and grasses, insects appear and...
What was that star trek movie—the one with Genesis? It’s exactly like that.
And those sneaky former soviets are growing some...nuclear plants, that is...
LOL. It is fascinating to me you can pour a slab of concrete over grass and weeds, and in a short time the weeds will find a way to break through the barrier and thrive.
But I have to baby my prized dalia to get it to thrive!!
LOL. It is fascinating to me you can pour a slab of concrete over grass and weeds, and in a short time the weeds will find a way to break through the barrier and thrive.
But I have to baby my prized dalia to get it to thrive!!
How bout it? I’ve long said we should be growing/eating weeds instead of tomatoes and stuff! Weeds are much hardier—they just don’t taste as good.
It is a constant battle to keep the woods from reclaiming our house. I don’t buy this “fragile earth” stuff any more. Between the moss and poison ivy and the squirrels and the bugs, I am in constant battle. Oh, and don’t forget the woodpeckers!
I am wondering if melanoma is such a dangerous cancer because the melanin facilitates the overgrowth of cancerous tissue from the sun’s radiation. Also it makes sense that fungi, one of earth’s older life forms, could survive and even thrive in radiation, as the earth was far less protected from extraterrestrial radiation at the time they evolved.
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