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TIL Fungi in Chernobyl appear to be feeding off gamma radiation and are growing towards the reactor core.
(thebiologist.rsb.org.uk)
this post was submitted on 26 Jun 2023
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Melanin is how.
That took me by surprise. I had no idea melanin protected from radiation like it does from the sun.
The sun is a giant ball of radiation
And isn’t sunburn a form of or similar reaction to radiation burn?
@Spacebar Would that mean that potentially people with high amounts of melanin in their skin would likely be safer during the aftermath of a nuclear accident/attack????
@inkican
You either want to be really far away from a nuclear explosion, or right next to it.
I think the better way to understand this is to know that the melanin difference between the fairest skinned person and the darkest skinned person is way smaller than you think. Something like 2x. It makes a big difference to our eyes, but it makes almost no difference to deadly radiation.
Imagine your skin magically became twice as thick, twice as tough. This would be convenient to avoid minor scrapes and scratches, but if you get stabbed or shot you will die just like anybody else. Hence, darker skinned people fare better when fighting off sunburn, but their skin melts off just like anybody else's when the rad levels get truly dangerous, with basically no difference at all.