"...here's the really funky thing about 

: Although scientists have shown that the fungus flourishes in the presence of ionizing radiation, no one has been able to pin down how or why. Radiosynthesis is a theory, one that's difficult to prove.

The mystery began back in the late 1990s, when a team led by microbiologist Nelli Zhdanova of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences embarked on a field survey in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to find out what life, if any, could be found in the shelter surrounding the ruined reactor.

There, they were stunned to find a whole community of fungi, 

. Notably, these organisms tended to be dark-hued to black, rich with the pigment melanin."

science

"...here's the really funky thing about *C. sphaerospermum*: Although scientists have shown that the fungus flourishes in the presence of ionizing radiation, no one has been able to pin down how or why. Radiosynthesis is a theory, one that's difficult to prove.

The mystery began back in the late 1990s, when a team led by microbiologist Nelli Zhdanova of the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences embarked on a field survey in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone to find out what life, if any, could be found in the shelter surrounding the ruined reactor.

There, they were stunned to find a whole community of fungi, [documenting an astonishing 37 species](https://doi.org/10.1017/S0953756200002756). Notably, these organisms tended to be dark-hued to black, rich with the pigment melanin."