Life can eat ionizing radiation!

I've found something in the news that, if confirmed, is so important
that deserves a discussion:

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Radiation_Eating_Fungi_Could_Change_The_Energy_Balance_On_Earth_And_Beyond_999.html

In brief, it seems that melanine in fungii transforms ionizing
radiation in chemical energy...just like chlorophyll does with visible
light. Melanine rich fungii grows up much faster if exposed to
radiations. Other details in the article i linked.

Maybe even animals, including humans, use a little of the energy
collected by melanine, when we stay in the sun

This may be a great change for exobiology: ionizing radiations are
everywere in the space and also originate by the underground of small
and big planets/moons/asteroids. If you have water, chemicals and the
right temperature, life is possible.

Furthermore, if you don't need light, temperature is not an issue even
for planets/moons/asteroids far from their star or even for rogue
planets in the interstellar space: if the atmosphere is tick the
right you may find the right temperature on the surface of a lot of
bodies . Galileo entry probe has found a temperature of 150°C in the
deep of the Jupiter atmosphere, just before to fail. Besides, if
radiations are a viable "power supply", life can appear underground or
underwater where also if possible to find the right temperature.


The list of possible energy sources for live that have been observed
on Earth life is getting long:

- Visible light (clorophill based plants)

- Organic compunds created by radiations, lighti (eg. Miller-Urey
experiment, It's a pity Stanley Miller has dead just 3 days ago,
before konwing about this. )

- Hydrothermal vents

- Ionizing radiation (melanine based fungii, bacteria and animals).
The new of the day.


PS 1) They have found a lot of mold, protozoa and amoeba in a globule
of water behind a panel inside the Mir station.... Were they eating
the radiation of space? In the article they say maybe a day this will
feed astronauts during long missions :-(.

PS 2) As usual, sorry for my poor English...

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