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Testing Chernobyl fungi as a radiation shield for astronauts:
[...] In this new effort, the researchers have built on research that showed some kinds of fungus are able to flourish in a very highly radioactive place here on Earth—inside the destroyed reactors at the Chernobyl site in Ukraine. Testing of several types of the fungus has showed that they not only survive in the former reactors, but actually flourish. They have the ability to absorb radiation and to convert it into energy for their own use. [...T]he researchers arranged with NASA to send a sample of one of the types of fungus found at Chernobyl—cladosporium sphaerospermum—to the International Space Station.
Once the fungus sample arrived at the ISS, astronauts monitored the petri dish set up by the researchers. One side of the petri dish was coated with the fungus; the other side had no fungus and served as a control. [...] The researchers found that the side of the petri dish that was covered with fungus reduced radiation levels coming through the dish by approximately 2% compared to the control side.
Journal Reference:
Graham K. Shunk, Xavier R. Gomez, Nils J. H. Averesch. A Self-Replicating Radiation-Shield for Human Deep-Space Exploration: Radiotrophic Fungi can Attenuate Ionizing Radiation aboard the International Space Station, bioRxiv (DOI: 10.1101/2020.07.16.205534)
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday July 29 2020, @02:08AM
A possibility here is that one can get somewhat better absorption with micro- to nanoscale structure in the shielding material.