In the early hours of 26 April 1986, Reactor No. 4 at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant (located in Pripyat, in present-day Ukraine) exploded, tearing off the top cover and releasing a massive amount of radioactive material into the atmosphere, with a cloud beginning to move over Europe. This was it The worst nuclear accident in history.
Two factory workers were killed in the explosion. Months later, 22 more would do so, plus six firefighters, because they received high doses of radiation that would have ended their lives. the Pripyat residents evacuated It wouldn’t be done until the next day.
More than 300,000 people lost their homes due to the tragedy, and the effects of that radioactive explosion still remain in many survivors. Since then, the exclusion zone has become A A place practically uninhabited by humans. However, plants and wildlife expanded in the area. In this context, it seems that the living organism has benefited from the radiation of the place, making it its means of livelihood.
Mushrooms Cladosporium severospermum He was found clinging to the interior walls of a house The most polluted buildings in the world. While for another organism the ionizing radiation from Chernobyl would cause serious damage, for this organism it is quite the opposite: according to some scientists, it performs a process similar to that which plants use with light, photosynthesis, but with radiation, what they call Radiosynthesis. But this remains a mystery to science.
In the 1990s, a team led by microbiologist Nelly Zhdanova of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine conducted a field study in Chernobyl. The goal was to discover if there was life in the exclusion zone. What they found there was A community of 37 species of fungiwith dark or black shades (rich in melanin), including the presence of C. sphaerospermumwith very high levels of radioactive contamination.
Studies on this organism have since revealed that ionizing radiation does not harm the fungi. This can cause atoms to turn into ions, which is very dangerous for humans, for example; However, in C. sphaerospermum He could Stimulate growth.
In 2008, radiopharmacologist Ekaterna Dadashova and immunologist Arturo Casadevall, from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the US, suggested that this and other fungi appear to collect and absorb this radiation. Convert it into energyIt is a process similar to what plants do with light during photosynthesis.
Not only that, but in recent years some research has begun to look into how this object can be used as a protective shield against the effects of radiation. In 2020, an experiment on the International Space Station found that there is a constant layer of the atmosphere C. sphaerospermum It can block a significant portion of this harmful ingredient. So, Can be used in space missionsBecause radiation is one of the big problems that astronauts face.
In addition, how it is used in medicine, biotechnology and energy production is also being studied. However, scientists still do not know why mushrooms are able to survive radiation and If radiosynthesis is really possible. What is clear is that for this organism that reproduces in Chernobyl, the compounds that expelled humans from there do not represent a danger, but rather provide an environment in which it can grow and adapt in ways that we are still trying to understand.