In the years since the 1986 nuclear meltdown at Chernobyl in Ukraine, scientists have been able to study the effects of nuclear radiation on nature. That's because all the people were evacuated from the nuclear power plant and the nearby town of Pripyat. Inside the exclusion zone, plants and animals were left to roam free without human interference. Scientist Tatiana Tugai of the Kyiv Institute of Microbiology and Virology visited the area to monitor those life forms and how they coped with radiation. Her team found more than 200 species of fungus growing in the exclusion zone, including an odd black fungus growing on the walls inside the nuclear reactor, where radiation levels were particularly high. The fungus is black because it contains melanin, which reacts with radiation in a way that makes the fungus grow. Read about this odd fungus, and how its makeup could be harnessed to protect space travelers from radiation, and even protect those of us on earth from some of the dangers of climate change, at Atlas Obscura. Use your own imagination to turn this idea into a horror film.
(Image credit: Tiia Monto)
