The mysterious black fungus from Chernobyl that may eat radiation • Hacker News Board

Re: The mysterious black fungus from Chernobyl that may eat radiation

#111

Post by dr_dshiv » Sun, Nov 30, 2025, 1:43 PM UTC

kadoban wrote: post #70

dr_dshiv wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What if the fungus accumulated radioactive particles in vesicles? Might they create chained reactions and thus deplete the radioactivity faster than spatially separated particles? Might that be plausible?

> Might that be plausible? Not really. You're talking about a fungus creating essentially a nuclear reactor inside of its cells, and creating it out of fuel that's not good enough to make a nuclear reactor in the first place (it at one time was, but now it's a mess of decay products and nonsense). Reactors also take a certain amount of mass. You can't just squish two tiny microgram particles together and hope to get…

> Reactors also take a certain amount of mass. You can't just squish two tiny microgram particles together and hope to get anything going.

Do they? Why not?

Re: The mysterious black fungus from Chernobyl that may eat radiation

#112

Post by kadoban » Sun, Nov 30, 2025, 10:57 PM UTC

dr_dshiv wrote: post #111

kadoban wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Might that be plausible? Not really. You're talking about a fungus creating essentially a nuclear reactor inside of its cells, and creating it out of fuel that's not good enough to make a nuclear reactor in the first place (it at one time was, but now it's a mess of decay products and nonsense). Reactors also take a certain amount of mass. You can't just squish two tiny microgram particles together and hope to get…

> Reactors also take a certain amount of mass. You can't just squish two tiny microgram particles together and hope to get anything going. Do they? Why not?

> Do they?

Pretty sure

> Why not?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_mass

Technically I guess I can't prove it wouldn't work if you make it dense/hot/covered-in-reflectors enough, but I'm pretty sure it's _well_ beyond the limits of what a fungus could even conceivably do.

Note that the only numbers on that page have various critical masses in kg. That's a bigass fungus.

And that's still not getting into: the "fuel" here is real shit. It's gotta be beyond its useful life even if you ignore that the thing melted down and corroded and blew up.

Re: The mysterious black fungus from Chernobyl that may eat radiation

#113

Post by neom » Mon, Dec 01, 2025, 5:20 PM UTC

This article lead me to an interesting exchange about vitiligo, thought I'd post it here for posterity:

Me - Nov 28, 2025, 10:51 AM:

Hey Dr. Dadachova, there was an article in the bbc today about radiotrophic fungus, I did some reading on them and it got me thinking about vitiligo. Current dermatology literature focuses on the immune destruction of melanocytes, often citing "oxidative stress" as a cause. However, there seems to be a total absence of data regarding the physical structure of the melanin polymer itself in these patients.

re: your findings that melanin’s electronic structure (EPR signal) changes under stress to become "protective/radiotrophic," I am wondering if the inverse mechanism could be driving vitiligo, where the melanin polymer is structurally defective (acting as a pro-oxidant "leaky capacitor") rather than a protective shield?

To your knowledge, has anyone ever applied the EPR techniques used in your fungal research to analyze melanin isolated from the active border of Vitiligo lesions? It seems plausible that a structural defect in the polymer physics could be the upstream trigger for the autoimmunity, similar to the "toxic melanin" theories in Parkinson’s disease.

I realized this sits at the exact boundary of your expertise in melanin physics and clinical pathology, and I was curious if you had ever explored this link??

tnx for reading! have a great weekend! :)

j.

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Dadachova, Kate Fri, Nov 28, 9:57 PM to me

Hello John,

Thank you for your message and interest in melanin work! We have never looked at melanin in Vitiligo lesions but I think that your hypothesis about defective melanin could be correct. I know that there are studies showing absence of EPR signal in Vitiligo, and, on the contrary, enhanced melanin signal in melanoma in comparison with benign nevi. Probably an interesting study for a pathologist to perform!

Best regards,

Kate