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Ned Potter is the science correspondent for ABC's "World News with Charles Gibson." He has reported on such topics as space exploration, the human genome and climate change.
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Mushrooms in Space
November 21, 2008 11:38 AM
When the first Star Wars film appeared in 1977, it was a revelation: things in space could be...grimy, or smelly, or worn-out. Remember the trash compactor scene?
This was no news to actual astronauts of the time, who gamely spent weeks in orbit without showers or toilets. They played it down.
Last night it got played up a bit. Gina Sunseri, who reports from Houston for us, passed on this tidbit from the Space Station, currently docked with the shuttle Endeavour:
"Cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov called down to the Russian control room from the International Space Station to report something unexpected in a corner of the space station: mushrooms.
"They aren't an experiment. Somehow mushrooms are growing where they shouldn't be growing in a dank dark corner of the space station."
"So in addition to the toilet, the kitchen, the bedrooms, the fridge, they have a produce garden as well."
We first posted this on the World Newser last night. Since then, Clarissa Ward, our Moscow correspondent, has added a note from there:
"According to Aleksandr Sprin with the Russian mission control:
"'If there’s not enough ventilation in the bathroom then, because it’s damp, the bacteria grows into a fungus. The cosmonauts were apparently hanging their wet towels in the bathroom and then they noticed that on the back wall there were fungi (or mushrooms) growing. The fungi are now being removed with some chemical cleaner.'
"Ewww!!"
November 21, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (39)
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Fungi DO NOT grow from bacteria - on maybe not from. They are probably growing on plastics and other chemicals there.
These people better learn biology before they report on it.
Posted by: botrytis | Nov 21, 2008 11:59:40 AM
botrytris, the Russian may not have a strong command of the English language and he described it incorrectly. Or maybe his words were mistranslated by someone.
Posted by: Jason | Nov 21, 2008 12:14:16 PM
There's a fungus among us!
Posted by: Tim | Nov 21, 2008 12:19:28 PM
I beg to differ with the comparison to Star Wars images. Yes, of course, there was the trash compactor scene in the "New Hope" episode, but generally the ships were spotlessly clean... TOO clean.
It wasn't until the first "Alien" that we saw the Nostromo depicted as a working space ship, grimy and dirty, providing a realistic look at what MOST spaceships would actually be. In the "Firefly" series, we saw the Serenity as a realistically believable ship, barely in working order.
Star Wars was indeed a milestone in sci-fi, but it wasn't until a year or two later that spaceships began to look "normal".
Posted by: Rhys | Nov 21, 2008 12:21:52 PM
The fungi, like mildew or mold in your bathroom, feed on the biofilm on the surfaces...you know a combination of our skin cells, any organic micro particulate matter floating around, and bacteria as well...but of course bacteria does "grow into" fungus but here are some actinobacteria than appear like a fungus...
Maybe it was lost intranslation somewhere...
Posted by: flscrub | Nov 21, 2008 12:25:08 PM
Mushrooms in space?Mescaline, the sixties...Not everybody at NASA is a nerd!
Posted by: Luis Rodriguez | Nov 21, 2008 1:17:01 PM
Spores, do they come from bacteria?
Posted by: cc | Nov 21, 2008 1:22:24 PM
Yeah.
The spiders now this.
The beginning plot device of another bad scifi movie.
They just keep giving the scifi channel more bad ideas.
Posted by: Jason | Nov 21, 2008 2:32:50 PM
Well, at least it isn't Stachybotrys - yet.
Posted by: Jordan | Nov 21, 2008 2:49:31 PM
Sounds like Cowboy Bebop Episode #17: Mushroom Samba
Posted by: Example | Nov 21, 2008 3:00:45 PM
Maybe before we are visited by live aliens, we will intercept a ghost ship. Imagine an intergalactic mission that came up just short due to infection.
Posted by: Kev | Nov 21, 2008 3:01:50 PM
A tragical incident, a ghost ship wrecking earth 10k years later :-)
Posted by: datadirt | Nov 21, 2008 3:15:58 PM
That cosmonut sounds like she needs a fungi
Posted by: North Park | Nov 21, 2008 3:27:53 PM
pigs in space - how about hanging up those wet towels boys?
Posted by: e-wench | Nov 21, 2008 3:28:10 PM
The first organism's on earth ? I can't believe the ignorance. We all, every living thing comes from bacteria,mold ,fungus etc. So we are all mushrooms. Aside from spiders who by the way don't quite make it to outer space. Spores so far are the only thing found in exposed outer space to still be alive. So if we come from a fish or a monkey, where did they come from ?Inhale one breath in the Fall and that is enough spore to cover an acre with mushrooms.So in the fall don't breath cause the srooms are doin it.
Posted by: Scott | Nov 21, 2008 3:40:33 PM
What a complete waste of tax payer monies: Nasa programs.
Posted by: RalphF | Nov 21, 2008 4:38:18 PM
I've seen enough sci-fi movies to know thats not good news! LOL Killer Mushrooms from Space...
Posted by: Lorraine | Nov 21, 2008 4:48:08 PM
Why a chemical cleaner? Why not add some spinach, and little salad dressing and ... Voila! The CO2 footprint of transporting food to space incrementally declines by __________________(fill in the blank).
Posted by: Wisdom | Nov 21, 2008 5:24:16 PM
.....what if they were Oaxacan Magic Shrooms?. Plus the fact of being in outer space. Nature imitating science.
Posted by: pLANETaX | Nov 21, 2008 6:31:02 PM
Millions of tax payers dollars to learn that mushrooms can grow in space. Thank you NASA! This is a big improvement since Tang.
Posted by: Andrew | Nov 21, 2008 6:36:34 PM
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