this post was submitted on 01 Dec 2025
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Well if it just evolved this ability that suggests it found a unique niche. But it probably hasn't optimized this, since it doesn't have any pressure to compete against other organisms for the radiation source.
But the good news is that we could selectively breed the fungus, or even generically engineer it (once the genes are isolated) to maximize the ability much faster.
I don't know how useful it would be for site cleanup but it might at least become good insulation (like the idea of space station shielding mentioned in the article).
In the future, instead of shooting up shiny silver rockets, we'll be firing up rockets covered in gross mold.
Obviously you hide the gross fungi under a nice silvery façade. You don't compromise aesthetics in space or all the other stellar societies will laugh at us, and uninvite us from the quasar parties.
We could breed it to incorporate radioactive particles to make it independently self-sustaining
One potentially useful thing that they could be used for is finding radioactive contamination. Presumably it grows best at higher radiation, so instead searching with ~~ginger~~ Geiger counters for radioactive contaminants you could spread this stuff out over the environment, then just look for where it is growing a while later. Engineer it to be bright orange or something.
One ginger, two ginger... Lot of redheads around today