Life in the extreme: Radiation swallowing fungi

In 1986 the world watched in horror as radiation spewed from reactor number four at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine - then part of the Soviet Union. Releasing more radioactivity into the atmosphere than the atomic bombs that were dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Ngagasaki in World War Two, it prompted a mass evacuation and the enforcement of a 30 kilometre exclusion zone to prevent further contamination and loss of life. It remains the worst nuclear accident in history. Remarkably however, nature found a way to survive - and award-winning UK science writer, Alex Riley will tell you that there are many other examples of life in the extreme - if you know where to look. Alex is the author of Super Natural - How Life Thrives in Impossible Places. He speaks to Susie about nature's incredible resilience - and what life could look like on other planets.

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