EXO LIFE
Radiation-Eating Fungi Could Change The Energy Balance On Earth And
Beyond.
Findings could trigger a recalculation of Earth's energy balance and
help feed astronauts.
by Staff Writers
New York NY (SPX) May 23, 2007
"Scientists have long assumed that fungi exist mainly to decompose
matter into chemicals that other organisms can then use. But
researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva
University have found evidence that fungi possess a previously
undiscovered talent with profound implications: the ability to use
radioactivity as an energy source for making food and spurring their
growth."
http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Ra...eyond_999.html

This could mean interplanetary and interstellar transport of
microorganisms is possible.
One of the arguments against life being transferred between planets
or between star systems is that they could not survive for the many
years in space unprotected from space radiation.
This argument becomes invalid if the microbes could actually live on
radiation.
Note as well this could make possible life in the interior of comets.
One explanation for the aqueous minerals seen in carbonaceous
meteorites and for the carbonate found on Comet Tempel 1 is that
liquid water was produced in comet interiors early in the solar
systems history from radiogenic heating. However, the argument went
such radioactivity would have been enough to kill any life within the
comets. This argument also becomes invalid if the life could live on
this radiation.


Bob Clark