this post was submitted on 14 Jul 2025
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[–] BudgetBandit@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 week ago (2 children)

There has been found a fungus that evolved to consume microplastics already! https://lamycosphere.com/en-int/blogs/the-futur-is-fungi/plastikfressende-pilze-sind-eine-naturliche-losung-fur-die-umweltverschmutzungskrise?srsltid=AfmBOopXsq1C4V3QswKk2bVz1-Y9NNbbDa5VhLclmQyVl-LkNqrijkvl

And a black one that consumes radiation! They’re working on a way to use that as a self healing radiation shielding in space! https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radiotrophic_fungus

[–] buddascrayon@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Just keep in mind how close our flesh is to plastic, chemically speaking. Anything that is really good at breaking down hydrocarbons may find us pretty tasty too.

Estimations indicate that approximately a 21 cm thick layer could significantly deflect the annual amount of radiation received on Mars’ surface.