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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Don't kill em with cleaners Dude!! Eat em! Shroomin' in zero gravity would be COOL!
Posted by: 'Shroomin' | Nov 21, 2008 6:41:09 PM
You people think Nasa wastes money?? Look at our govt giving free bailouts to greedy corporations! And Obama is already promising even more hand outs to the big three once he takes over America! I bet Obama will waste more money in a day than Nasa does in a year!
Posted by: Nobama | Nov 21, 2008 6:47:46 PM
Oaxacan Magic Shrooms? lol the thought of in space would be wild enough, let alone tripping while floating around omg.
Posted by: FreshMeatz | Nov 21, 2008 7:02:09 PM
Launch Little Astronaut Muffet
Use the mushroom as a Tuffet.
Muffet could sit on it a every day.
And each web-weaving spider
coukd spin lassos right beside her
to grab the $100,000 tool pack
floating away.
Posted by: Wisdom | Nov 21, 2008 8:00:08 PM
Pics or it didnt happen
Posted by: Geordie | Nov 22, 2008 4:40:45 AM
In Russian there Mushroom and fungus are the same word.
Posted by: dave | Nov 22, 2008 4:54:21 AM
How do you hang a towel in zero g?
Posted by: sempai's pleasurous nutrients | Nov 22, 2008 4:58:05 AM
Did anyone think to identify what kind of mushroom it is? For all the cost of sending a scientific expedition into space, it would be nice to have that data.
Posted by: ripple | Nov 22, 2008 5:54:52 AM
Terence Mckenna used to speculate that the mushroom was an alien life form and that spores were well suited for space travel.
Posted by: BA | Nov 22, 2008 8:56:20 AM
its the flood!!!!
Posted by: david | Nov 22, 2008 9:22:03 AM
If space is infinite, by definition there is mush-room in space...
Posted by: Worz13 | Nov 22, 2008 10:39:44 AM
Bacteria and fungi are in completely different domains. One can't grow into the other.
Posted by: Fishhead | Nov 22, 2008 2:17:39 PM
Too bad a picture of the space mushrooms
was not shot. That would have been
the first photo of naturally growing
space mushrooms.
thanks from tony
Posted by: ntopics | Nov 22, 2008 2:21:55 PM
It would be nice if NASA had more innovative stuff to talk about... Public opinion on their projects suffers when they report on basically minor items like mold growing in a dank corner or spiders building webs. It's like we're reading about someones inane twitter messages rather than real news half the time. Send a couple "ordinary people" up there with a camera and let them document the silly stuff and the drama of living in a space station... Some network would probably fund it... That kind of news coming from an expensive scientific organization just makes it look silly and unprofessional.
Posted by: privatemale | Nov 22, 2008 3:56:49 PM
This really isn't anything new, there was bad mold problem on MIR.
It grew behind controls panels and just about anywhere light and fresh air didn't reach.
Posted by: XDisk | Nov 22, 2008 4:20:01 PM
its not fungus, their actually space aliens observing the crew of the space station, plotting to take control of the world.
Posted by: mindless | Nov 22, 2008 4:22:45 PM
Funny there was never any photographic proof. There's 24 coverage on the Nasa channel, and yet no photos of the mushrooms? I say it's all BS! Just like the lunar landings.
Posted by: Dr. Doom | Nov 23, 2008 3:19:36 PM
Trust the fungus
Posted by: ShatBrickner | Nov 24, 2008 11:24:42 AM
How exactly do you "hang" a wet bathroom towel in zero g?
Posted by: Colin | Nov 24, 2008 1:08:04 PM
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