Hi Gang, A report today claims that some fungi can use ionizing radiation to fuel their metabolism; i.e. gamma rays. The claim is that they actually use radiation, and not radioactive compounds. The process, if verified, is not at all like photosynthesis in the details. But, like photosynthesis, the process is thought to take advantage of the ability of electromagnetic radiation to bump electrons around. The idea is that, ionizing radiation knocks the electrons into higher energy states (just as light can) and as they fall to lower energy states the electrons release energy that the fungi can capture as chemical energy to drive the processes of life. Electromagnetic radiation comes in increasing energies, generally arranged (from lowest to highest) as: radio waves, microwaves, terahertz radiation, infrared radiation, visible light, ultraviolet radiation, X-rays, and gamma rays. Today's report, by Ekaterina Dadachova and her colleagues at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, claims that some fungi utilize gamma radiation to help them grow. (LINK 1, LINK 2). This is a very weird, but not totally unanticipated, announcement. Scientists have long speculated that life might exist (somewhere) that is able to take advantage of thermal energy, or gravitational energy, etc., as primary energy sources (LINK 3). I will be curious to see if this report is verified. Such ability would greatly enlarge the scenario for life, what it is and where it might be found. You could imagine life evolving in many unusual places including deep space. You could suppose the universe is full of life, just as it is full of energy and matter. The question then arises, how come we have not observed this type of life before? Either we're looking at the universe with blinders, or some principle is keeping such life from happening very often or spreading to within our view. I can't wait to grow bigger and better Crinum. I'll genetically engineer them to utilize microwave radiation and then give them 5 minutes a day in the microwave oven. Cordially, Joe Conroe TX LINK 1: Press Release, Einstein Researchers Discover Radiation-eating Fungi http://eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2007-05/… LINK 2: Original Research Paper by Dadachova et al., Fungi utilizing radiation (PLOS, open source) http://plosone.org/article/fetchArticle.action/… LINK 3: Alternative Energy Sources for Life on Europa (speculation) http://geo.utep.edu/pub/dirksm/…