Eating Outdoors-In Space, That Is
“Just as the pigment chlorophyll converts sunlight into chemical energy that allows green plants to live and grow, our research suggests that melanin can use a different portion of the electromagnetic spectrum – ionising radiation – to benefit the fungi containing it,” says study leader Ekaterina Dadachova of the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York, US.
What would we do with a plant in our backyard that grew faster when it was fed radiation? Sounds like something out of Star Trek, but it really does happen. According to Space.Com, Arturo Casadevall, chair of microbiology and immunology at Einstein, happened to read about fungi which was growing around the now-closed nuclear reactor at Chernobyl that was heavily contaminated by an accident in 1986—a major accident in 1986 in the Ukraine where the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant had an explosion that was followed by radioactive contamination of the surrounding geographic area. But now something alive is growing out of the contaminated area, a fungi that actually thrives on the radiation. This idea allowed Casadevall to theorize that maybe these same fungi could use the black pigment melanin to harness radiation.
The experiment was begun by growing two batches of fungi, one with melanin and one without, then zapping them with gamma rays. What was found out is that the fungi with melanin grew better when coming into contact with radiation, also loving dark damp places. From this experiment, another theory grew that the radiated fungi would grow where nothing else would as long as radiation was present, which would offer a source of food for astronauts living space for lengthened periods of time, such as the two year round trips to Mars or the Moon bases. Also, new testing has been begun for ranges of electromagnetic radiation on the fungi, from ultraviolet light to visible light. Edible fungi, such as mushrooms, are also being tested.
Why does fungi with melanin grow better with radiation than fungi without? Melanin is present on human skin, but in a plant scientists have discovered that fungi with melanin may convert radiation to energy in a process similar to photosynthesis in plants. Additional discoveries were made at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine at New York’s Yeshiva University, with the team experimenting further in order to find out if the fungi could be harvesting radiation in order to fuel their growth. By doing so, they found out that not only did the fungi grow faster but also changes in the electrical structure of the melanin changed when it was exposed to radiation. The project’s lead researcher, Ekaterina Dadachova, noticed that the pigment melanin possibly plays a role in the development of the fungi, similar to that of chlorophyll in plants, trapping energy from sunlight and then converting it to “food energy” which is needed to sustain life, according to National Geographic online.
This entry was posted on Saturday, June 2nd, 2007 at 7:11 am and is filed under Mission Objectives, Space Agency News, The Gear to Get There. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
