Astromycology with Marta Filipa Simões
Alisa Nappa
Today we travel to space with Marta Filipa Simões to talk about what fungi has been found in space, how they can survive, what tests we are doing on earth to discover their space exploration potential, and the possibility of fungal life on other planets.
Marta Filipa Simões is a microbiologist who has worked with a myriad of microorganisms (mycobacteria, environmental and clinical bacteria, mycobacteriophages, yeasts, and filamentous fungi) and has a multidisciplinary background with a particular focus on mycology (filamentous fungi). She graduated in Biotechnological Engineering, did a Master in Clinical Microbiology, and got her Ph.D. in Chemical and Biological Engineering, in Portugal. She then did a postdoc in Saudi Arabia, at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), and has worked in the UK, at Edge Hill University (EHU), as a senior biology technician, a junior research fellow, and an associate tutor.
She is currently based in Macau (China), where she is working as an assistant professor on astrobiology, at the State Key Laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences (SKLPlanets), located at the Macau University of Science and Technology (MUST). She is establishing her research team on astromycology. Her current work is focused mostly on: fungal ecology, biodiversity in environmental analogues to outer-space conditions, bioprospection and application of filamentous fungi, and fungal growth containment and exploitation in outer-space similar conditions (e.g., simulated microgravity and exposure to artificial regoliths).
- ResearchGate: www.researchgate.net/profile/
Marta_Simes - Google scholar: https://scholar.google.pt/
citations?user=sm5g6nsAAAAJ& hl=pt-PT -
Twitter: @Simoes_MF
Extra information and details:
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For detailed information on astromycology research and experiments done, or even fungal species tested in both real outer space conditions and simulated conditions, you can check out the publication: https://www.mycosphere.org/
pdf/MYCOSPHERE_14_1_13.pdf . -
As mentioned, me and my research team, we've done several experiments in hypergravity (10 and 15G). This was done through a project entitled "HyperSpacEx – Medical and Biotechnological potential of Fungi in Hypergravity for Space Exploration", where we had access to a large diameter centrifuge (LCD) to simulate the selected hypergravity values. This LDC is available at the facilities of the European Space Research and Technology Center (ESTEC), Noordwijk, the Netherlands, which we accessed through the HyperGES programme (https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/
en/ourwork/access2space4all/ ). HyperGES is a cooperation programme between the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) and the European Space Agency (ESA), developed under the Access to Space for All Initiative.HyperGES/HyperGES_Index.html -
Hydrothermal vents were discovered a few decades ago and are a relatively recent discovery in the field of oceanography. Initially, these extreme environments were thought to be sterile and devoid of life. However, subsequent research revealed a high diversity of microbial life thriving there. These microorganisms are highly adapted the harsh conditions. This discovery was highly significant for astrobiology and expanded our understanding of life’s potential habitats. Furthermore, hydrothermal vents are considered terrestrial analogues for Mars. This is due to the detection of ancient hydrothermal vents on Mars, which suggests that similar conditions might have once supported life on the Red Planet.
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Panspermia is the theory or hypothesis that defends that life exists throughout the Universe and can be carried out into different locations, like our own planet, through space dust, meteorites, asteroids, comets, and planetoids. This is one of the theories that attempts to explain the origin of life on Earth.
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TRANSCRIPT
Alex 0:11 Welcome, welcome, you are listening to the mushroom revival podcast. I'm your host, Alex Dora. And we are absolutely obsessed with a wonderful, wacky, mysterious world of mushrooms and fungi, we bring on guests and experts from all around the world to geek out with us, and go down this mysterious rabbit hole of what the heck are going on with these mushroom, fungal beings and just diving into the various niches of all these researchers and what they're dedicating their lives about. So today we're going to dive into a very interesting topic of Astro mycology. And we have Marta joining us from Macau, China to dive into this out of world experience. So Martha, how you doing today for people that don't know who you are and what you're up to? Who are you? Speaker 1 1:03 Okay, hi. Hello. So my name is Monica Of course, and I am an assistant professor of astrobiology in Macau. So I work at the state key laboratory of Lunar and Planetary Sciences. And this is a state key laboratory of China. That is located at the Macau University of Science and Technology. And of course, it's in Macau. Macau is a special administrative region of China. So similar like Hong Kong, and it's actually just about one hour away from Hong Kong. So in the south of China, and that's me, I do research in Astra mycology. Alex 1:42 Amazing. I actually went to a medicinal mushroom conference in Nan Tong China in 2019. And they're talking about the state key laboratory in China. And I've always wanted to visit after that presentation. It just seemed like such a cool place doing an amazing, amazing research, taking finding mushrooms from all over the world and doing analytical research and preserving them and just doing amazing research. And so I'm really excited to get into your your work and all the work of your colleagues. But first off, how did you originally get into mushrooms and mycology? Speaker 1 2:26 Let me start by saying that I do not work with mushrooms. So I do work with fungi, but essentially filamentous fungi. So molds basically, though I do like mushrooms, but I don't really research them. And it was a bit weird because I I didn't look for it. I didn't view much. I didn't know much about fungus and fungi. And I had been doing research already. So I did my graduation in biotechnological engineering. And at that time, I was doing research on chemical synthesis, organic chemistry. And I was working on compounds for the treatment of tuberculosis. So I was working with bacteria, and then testing on cell culture and doing a completely different work. And then I did my Master's in clinical microbiology and kept on working in tuberculosis. So fungi for me were something that was not pleasant, because if I see if I came across any fungus, during my research work, it meant that I was looking at contaminations, at least at that time. But then, after finishing my master, because there was no funding, and I was looking for research projects, I actually met my PhD supervisor. And he invited me to visit his lab and he works. He works on a cultural collection of filamentous fungi. And that was my first experience as I said, Okay, sure. I always like to get to know new things. I don't know much about fungi. So yeah, let's let's check it. And I went and do is actually the person responsible for me, falling in love with fungi because they are amazing. So what actually got me completely in love with them is the diversity in terms of morphology. So once I started to check the colonies and checking them under the stereo microscope and optical microscope, it's just, they're amazing. So that's, that's what got me and from there on, he convinced me to do a PhD with him. And I went into mycology and never came back. That's Alex 4:41 amazing. And my it's also incredible that you are researching tuberculosis. I had an X many years ago who was born in Ethiopia and both their parents got tuberculosis and ended up passing away. So that's like very dear to my heart. And so, yeah, it seems like they didn't have the solutions then and they're in Ethiopia at that time. So, you know, who has so many Speaker 1 5:12 issues? Exactly. Regulus is still a big problem in many places around the world, not just under developed countries or something like that. But the thing is, fungi can actually bring out solutions because they produce so many different types of compounds. It's just a matter of looking. And the thing is, we have only found a tiny little bit of the diversity of fungi that exists in our planet. So there's a lot to explore a lot research and it's just let's get people into this. We need to Alex 5:47 you're in the right place. Yeah. And so let's, you know, love fungi on this planet. But let's talk about life on other planets. I, I've always, I'm always kicking myself, because I took an astrobiology course, my first semester or second semester in college, and at the time, I was in a weird place. So I didn't pay attention as as closely as I should have. And I'm kicking myself to this day. And I'm like, I want to retake that class, because it's so cool. But what is astrobiology and specifically Astro mycology. Speaker 1 6:25 Okay, so astrobiology is is quite a big topic. So I'm not going to go into astrobiology because we could stay here all night, if I could make it awake. But going into astral mycology. So that's where mycology is something that most people don't know. And the ones that have heard about it, they usually just think of science fiction, like Star Trek Discovery and things like that. That knife if you know the series. Yeah, yeah. So most people don't really think of Astro mycology is as a real science. But it's actually a field of astrobiology, of course. And we don't study alien life, per se, what we do studies, fungi from our planet, but in space conditions. And we just try to see how they adapt how they develop, if, if they thrive well and survive all the harsh conditions of outer space? And if they do, what happens to them? Can we use them? Can they arm us if we go on a space mission and end up taking them. So that's what we're trying to figure out. There's, there's a lot to be done. Because this is a very new field. Not much has been done. There's a lot of people are working on this topic. But still, there are so many species that we need to study. It's so many different parameters that we need to analyze to properly understand what we can do. That is just the beginning of the word. Alex 8:04 I was reading about a story in 1988. And I don't know if you're familiar with the story, but Russian astronauts found fungi growing on a window and then the fungi spread on on the space station. And it got into the vents and in their food and water and just fungi going everywhere on the Space Station. I'm curious what what type of fungi was that? What was and like? How did it impact the research into Astra mycology? Speaker 1 8:33 Okay, so the first time we had fungi being detected in space was in the Russian modular space station, the first modular space station called me. And at that time, fungi were responsible for the malfunction of the station. Because, as you just said, it started growing everywhere, and corroding and destroying a lot of the infrastructures of the space station. And that was actually the first time that people realize that space was not a sterile environment, because until then, no one really thought about forward and backward contamination. No one thought that any type of organism, microorganism could live in space, it just assumed no, there is no real terrestrial environment, so nothing will survive. And that proved us wrong. So at that time, people ended up isolating many different types of species. There was Aspergillus species, Penicillium species for those Boreum. So there were there were many different species that found just at that time, and that that was the first time like the stepping stone that actually got our attention into fungi and space exploration because they can they can actually impact and not in a good way. Alex 9:55 I was also reading a story not too long ago about it that I'm forgetting the details. But some American astronauts, I guess they crashed landed somewhere in the US. And they had to pick them up, and then bring them through US Customs, because technically they were entering the country again. So I thought that was really funny. They had to, like show their passports and go through customs. And, you know, like coming from from space. And I just thought that was like a really funny story that you still have to do that, you know, as an astronaut go through customs reentering the country and yep, that's, I mean, that story in 1988, it sounds like right out of a sci fi film, you know, fungi, you know, this alien fungus overtaking the space station that I mean, it's pretty wild. And fast forward to 2016. I was reading also a story about how NASA researchers launched Aspergillus nidulans into space and saw it producing compounds that it doesn't on Earth. And they, they saw had potential medical benefit for osteoporosis, which I thought was really cool because astronauts lose bone density so quickly. So that just the thought of a of a fungus producing compounds to help with, you know, your skeletal structure. I thought that was just really, really, really interesting of Yeah, of just that that connection. But I'm just curious about that species, and then other species that we've brought into the space since then. Speaker 1 11:43 So that was not the first species to actually be taken to space, I mean, on purpose, because of course, as soon as we went to space, as we sent something to space, we weren't worried in the beginning with sterilizing, cleaning, disinfecting, so of course, we were sending fungi because fungi are everywhere. But when we started doing experiments with with specific species, I don't know exactly which one was the first. But from the first times of the International Space Station, we've been doing research with different species already. So that was not the first one. But that was the first one where actually, they were exploring drugs for the treatment of osteoporosis, of course, that the amazing thing is that if you think of fungi, they do, they are responsible for the production of many different things, not just drugs for the treatment of osteoporosis. But for for any sort of thing that you can think I think there's a fungi that can produce something to help or to cure or to reduce symptoms. So we can use fungi for many different things. And just like that specific species, we can actually explore other species to produce other things. And if we think of long term missions, the ones where you might end up needing several different drugs, and you will not have a pharmacy just around the corner, and you cannot just come back quickly to Earth to get whatever you might need, then just think of the possibility, we can actually take like, a group selected group of different species and produce whatever we might need along the way. So it's, the possibilities are endless. And unfortunately, astronauts don't just go through bone problems, they go through a lot of health issues, immune system issues, there's there's a huge list of things. So all of that makes them more prone to get affected by different infections. And we know that microbes once they are stressed and are exposed to space conditions, and not just fungi, they can actually become a bit more pathogenic, or even infections, they might have even suddenly become infections when they previously previously weren't. So considering all of that, just thinking of the hypothesis of taking a batch of species selected species that we already know that if put under stress conditions of outerspace, if we can still exploit them to produce different things. It's just amazing. We can can do a lot Alex 14:31 and do you know, the current kind of sterilization techniques that we use since 1988 to kind of prevent both us taking fungi to space stations and things like that, but then if or or when we have an outbreak, what what are the current protocols to kind of prevent a spreading in malfunction of the space station Speaker 1 14:59 so A, there are many complex protocols, planetary protection protocols. And I don't really know them in detail, but they are a bit complex. And they involve setting everything in clean rooms, disinfecting everything, making sure that all the environment is completely isolated and controlled everything entering the, the Queen rooms where everything is said, is completely completely controlled. But the thing is, once you go to space, once you send an organism and it doesn't even need to be a human, once you send a living organism, it's not going to be on it on its own, because we have microbes, we have our microbiomes. Other organisms will also have other microorganisms living in them. So it doesn't matter how well you clean out? Well, it is, in fact, there's always some microbial load that will be going even on the clean rooms in terms of infrastructure, even after doing all the cleaning and disinfecting protocols, there is always a tiny little amount of residual microbial load there and all the protocols still account for that. And we know that it doesn't matter how much you work and be careful, there's always going to be that you just make sure that the protocols decrease it as much as possible. There's actually I don't know the rates, but there's, like certain rates that are acceptable. And then from there, everything can can happen, basically. Alex 16:42 And we're the biggest carriers, you know, we I like to I like to call humans, a public bus, public transport bus for micro organisms. Because, you know, at the end of the day, we're like 90% other organisms, and we're just exactly, you know, the public Metro for All these billions of different organisms. And yeah, I brought in a researcher years ago that one of the craziest facts was that we have up to 69 different types of fungi just living in our mouths alone, which is crazy. And, you know, our whole microbiome, you know, on our skin and our guts and our whole body. And there's so many microorganisms that we're carrying on a daily basis. And yeah, kill. Speaker 1 17:31 Exactly, though, we will be taking all of those with us. So if we consider space exploration, it's not as on our own, we're taking hitchhikers some on purpose, but that there's not that we're taking a lot of other organisms. So. So Alex 17:47 I'm, I'm curious, I saw a picture on an article about your hyper gravity experience experiments that you're running. And I don't know if it was the right picture. But it looks like and, you know, I'm, I'm not as familiar with this research. But it looks like what I've seen in movies where they have astronauts simulate the high G force, and they're sitting in kind of this spinning thing, and it goes around really, really fast. And it looks like that was the picture. Well, how had Yeah, can you talk about how you simulate low gravity situations for fungi. Speaker 1 18:27 Regarding this hyper gravity experiments, this was a project that I was able to do with the support of the United Nations and NASA. And there's this facility in the Netherlands, from Aza Aztec that has this huge centrifuge, and it's literally a centrifuge that takes up huge room. And it has these containers, basically, it's it's easier to show in pictures than to actually describe, but it has this big, these big boxes that are called gondolas that you attach on this huge centrifuge. And then of course, it can by rotation, it can mimic hyper gravity and depending on the velocity and the the angles of the different gondolas, then you can mimic different values of hyper gravity. And that's, that's how it works. So it is a bit like sci fi movies, because it's really big, and it spins really, really fast that if something goes wrong, and one of those gondolas will break well, won't be good. But that's what that's the equipment that we were able to use. And basically what we did was we selected several different fungal species and we expose them to hyper gravity in in our experiments, we expose them to 10 G and 15 G. And there's not much done. Not until now with fungi and hyper gravity, we couldn't find anything on the literature. So we didn't know what to aim for. We didn't know if we could, if fungi would survive 15 G or not, if we should go for lower values, bigger values. But what we actually saw was that 15 G mean nothing to fungi, the higher, Okay, where did we could have, I think we could have gone up to 20, they wouldn't, they wouldn't mind it at all. Because they grew really well. They did all their processes, and had their metabolism working just as if nothing happened. So So that's, that's what what we did. So we went to the Netherlands with our fungi, tested them there. And we're still processing the samples, because then we want to check specific things. So of course, we expose them there. But then we want to make sure that when we compare the exposed fungi to the nonexposed fungi, that there are or there are differences in terms of genetics, in terms of production of, we're looking for specific things for metal nanoparticles, for specific group of enzymes and secondary metabolites with anti microbial activity. So we're testing, still testing all of these from the fungi that were exposed. But so far, we haven't found any differences. They, they were not affected at all by hyper gravity. Alex 21:41 I read in article that some of the fungi actually their growth was promoted under microgravity conditions, did some types actually do better? Like two G's or something? Speaker 1 21:53 So that's, that's another part of the research that we also do here in Macau. So we simulate microgravity, because if if we could, we would actually take a lot of our species to a real microgravity environment like a space station. But it's it's very complex for us. So we have an equipment that it's called Aquinas that, in our case, it's a 3d recliner set. And it's very similar to the huge centrifuge that mimics the hyper gravity. The difference is that this one is very small. So it fits inside a regular incubator. And it's moved in several different axes, not just one like the big centrifuge for the hyper gravity. But what we do is we simulate microgravity and then test the different species. But it's not just us. So this there's already a lot of studies that have shown that microgravity actually can alter a lot of the metabolisms of fungi. And some of them end up having higher yields of production of different compounds, some start producing compounds that they didn't in normal environment. So there's there's a lot on that already. And that's part of the study that we do. Alex 23:16 That's awesome. And are you also testing radioactive environments as well? Not Speaker 1 23:24 not as there are some several research groups that test that. But that's one of our limitations, we cannot simulate all the other space conditions. So in our case, here in Macau, what we study is microgravity, hyper gravity, but only to small valleys, because we can simulate upper gravity on the planet stat. And then we simulate the conditions like high salinities, high temperatures, very low temperatures, high pressure, and that's about it, because we don't have the facilities to test other things. We do have some collaborations, and we're trying to work and develop a couple of different parameters. But we have so much going on just with what we have at the moment that we're taking it a bit slow in that sense. What Alex 24:15 um, do you have any hypotheses on why some fungi as growth is promoted under microgravity conditions? Speaker 1 24:24 Well, I don't have a specific hypothesis because until now, we haven't figured out exactly what happens. But what we do know is that the alterations once fungi change, regardless if we're talking of hyper gravity, microgravity radiation, what we do know is that all of these is species abandoned. So while you might have one species that has the growth exacerbated, for example, you might have another one that actually has a decrease in in the amount Have biomass forums, for example, but we, like I kinda lost my byline of that. Sorry. So sorry. Can you take me back a bit? It's Alex 25:17 all it's okay. Yeah, we can we can take that up. Speaker 1 25:22 What were you asking for? Because I think it got microgravity and I got lost. Alex 25:28 Yeah. The the hypotheses of why some Sanjose gross were promoted microgravity. Unknown Speaker 25:33 Okay. Okay. Yes. Okay. Okay, let's go there again. Okay, can I Alex 25:43 start? Yeah, you're good. Yeah. Speaker 1 25:48 So, as I was saying, regarding the hypothesis of why some fungi change, we don't know, what we do know is that it's something that is species species specific. So some species do change, others don't. But we keep on testing different. So there's a limited group of species that has been testing, even though there has been a lot of studies, the entire amount of different species tested goes up to maybe around 20. But that's not that that's nothing, considering the amount of species that we have. So there is still a lot that we do need to study. But what we do know is that any biological system, once it is exposed to different conditions, then then what are the preferred ones, they tend to adapt and evolve. And it's, it's just just like, as humans, if you, if we get stressed, things will start changing on us. The same happens to fungi, once they get stressed. Some of them react well, in the sense that it doesn't bother them, others don't. And those that don't react, well, some of them might end up having reactions that favor us for things that we can exploit. So more production of different byproducts. Or they might actually just go into a more protective situation where they don't produce anything, they don't do anything, they reduce their metabolism, the rate of all the reactions that happen. And it just, it depends. And even, it's even a bit more complex than that. Because even when you have a specific species that tends to act in a specific way, sometimes fungi are even a bit moody. So you're expecting them to behave in a certain way, and produce a certain thing in a certain amount. And suddenly, that does not happen. So it's worth we're still trying to understand everything, but it's a very young we know little, little here and there. Have Alex 28:04 you heard stories about liking. Being I've, I've read a few things about both simulated environments, but also a story. I can't remember what space station but they threw out a piece of like in into space for six months. So then they brought it back on board. And it continued growing like nothing happened. And then other stories of, you know, a simulated Mars environment that they had this piece of like in there for one and a half years. And you know, it just was fine. I don't know if you? I mean, like it is kind of its own thing. It's mostly. Yeah. Speaker 1 28:43 Yes. I actually know some of the people involved in that research. And yes, it's exactly what you're saying. It's it just kept on going as if nothing happened. And they kept on trying to find differences and trying to find what were the changes that they thought they were not finding, but they couldn't find anything. Like, wild. Yeah. Alex 29:13 And with that, do you believe that there's life on other planets? Unknown Speaker 29:23 I do. I do. I do. But I do it. That's a very complex question. Alex 29:28 You have the you can't answer it, or else you'll have to kill us. Speaker 1 29:34 I believe I believe there's something out there. Yes, I do believe there's some sort of life, but I do believe that we might not be able to actually recognize it. So even in our own planet, if you just think, like, the extreme environments that we have on our planet, like I do terminal events, for example, in the bottom of the ocean, just about a decade ago, we thought that though As we're like pristine environments, devoid of any life, and now, just a decade, after we know that they're full of organisms living in there, there's a huge diversity. So it's just a matter of having the technology and the knowledge to be able to identify whatever we see. So you might be facing life and not seeing it just like in our own planet. So I do believe that there's got to be something out there, it's just a matter of has been able to actually see it. Alex 30:35 Do you guessing after every space expedition, there's some sort of, you know, everything is quarantine, everything is scanned? Have you ever been reached out to, to say, hey, we found this piece of fungus growing, you know, Can you can you help identify it? Or do research on it? Oh, Speaker 1 30:56 no. So I, I have collaborators that have been involved in research on contaminations of, for example, of the International Space Station, because they do have a lot of issues with fungal contamination, especially in the rooms where they do exercise because of the increase of humidity, that they do have a lot of walls where fungi start growing. And they do have to scrub the station on a regular basis, just to make sure that they decrease the fungal growth. But I have never been directly involved in that sort of work. So there haven't been anything very, very alien, that people haven't been able to identify if that's what you were thinking about. Alex 31:44 Both but I'm also curious, I brought on a researcher who goes to Antarctica all the time. And art, Antarctica is kind of a weird political place where no one owns it. And it's kind of shared by researchers all around the world. And that is, seems similar to the International Space Station. And what he was kind of describing with Antarctica is, each country has their own plot of land. And they don't necessarily talk to each other. Maybe if the to the multiple countries are more friendly than then they will. But I think he was saying, you know, China's way far away, and that, you know, don't really talk to the US researchers that much. And so I'm just curious on what are the political, if, you know, kind of negotiations with the International Space Station in this research. Speaker 1 32:39 Okay, just before we actually go into the International Space Station, we just had one of our astrobiology that actually, the team leader of the astrobiology group here, just returned four days ago from one month expedition to Antarctica. And even though China does have a research base, there, it was, you went through a collaboration with shields, so it was on a different research base. But yes, it's a bit complex, it's a bit, it's a weird place, let's say, regarding space station, so International Space Station is open to everyone that applies to it. However, as you probably know, the lifespan of the the International Space Station is coming to its end. So China is now increasing the capabilities of its own space station. But what China wants to do is actually have also an open and collaborative space station. So whoever wants to do research on the Chinese space station just has to apply. And then if the project is accepted, that's, that's fine. So they can also do it. So I think it's going to be actually sort of a transition from the International Space Station into the Chinese Space Station, even because there won't be any other options that Alex 34:12 oh, yeah, haven't heard about the lifespan of the International Space Station. Is it just an old facility and it's kind of falling apart? And, and there's no plan to make it to point out Speaker 1 34:24 the plan is to actually and it's functioning in some years. I don't remember the exact date. It might actually change. But it's, it doesn't have long, let's say that. So once once they end its operation then the Chinese space station will be the only option. Alex 34:47 Interesting, and I'm I hear space trash is a huge phenomenon. Yeah. Has anyone ever, you know prospected the space trash to see if anything's growing on on that? No, no, Speaker 1 35:04 I think no one is actually focused on that the majority of the research done regarding space trash is on ways to actually recover it and repurpose it. So that we actually decrease the amount of trash that we have. Because it's, it's just absolutely incredible because we have so much so many things floating around our planet. And people have no idea that we keep on having lunches on a regular basis and nothing comes back. A lot of things stay there. So yeah, we keep on increasing the amount of things around, Alex 35:45 that would be really cool. If there was tons of fungi going on all the space trash, just put your I honestly would not surprise me, but it would be very same, Speaker 1 35:54 the same. I wouldn't be surprised also. But no one focused on that. And you know, it could actually be a problem for us. Because, you know, for example, with climate change, we see a lot of new fungal Emerging Infections coming up. Right, and just like fungi, adapting our own planet to the climate change. In outer space conditions, they also adapt. So if we actually have a lot of fungi around, they might actually be an issue and not a good issue for us in the future. But Alex 36:27 new new sci fi movie coming out? Yeah, to a theater near you coming soon. And I, you know, we were researching Do you know, at Katrina Delta jova. From Russia? Unknown Speaker 36:45 I know the name Yeah, itself? Yeah. Yeah. Alex 36:47 She, for people who haven't listened to the episode, She studies the fungi at Chernobyl, and then also does with that radioactive environment also extends into space as well. And she was saying that a lot of the fungi actually, not only were surviving there, but thriving there and actually growing faster, given the radioactive conditions, and I'm just curious, you know, and like your team discovered that some fungi actually grow faster under microgravity conditions. I'd be curious if, you know, if they were growing on space trash, if they're actually growing faster and producing more compounds more rapidly than they would on Earth. And they're turning into some super fungi. Speaker 1 37:36 Good beats not, it's not impossible at all. The only issue is that we would still need to recover the trash to study it. And that's, that will probably be the most complex part of the research. Alex 37:48 Right? So what what is the most complex, hardest part of your research currently Speaker 1 37:58 having access to simulation facilities, that that that is the the most complex part, because you don't have many laboratory facilities that have all the complex infrastructures, so that you can simulate with multiple parameters. So you end up doing single parameter studies, or sometimes you just have, like a couple of parameters together or something like that. But it's, it's always very limiting. So if you would have or even the chance to actually study, real estate's real space environment, that would be perfect. Alex 38:37 So say you had unlimited simulated environments, you got to, you know, go to space as many times as you want. unlimited money and time and you had the best researchers on your team. And all the equipment, everything at your fingertips. What, what would you do? Speaker 1 38:57 I would I would get my own space station. Cool. No, I guess the goal would be to do research in real space conditions. So of course, having my own space station would be perfect for that. But if not, well, Money takes us many places. So you know. Alex 39:21 Well, yeah. Now now that we're just such good friends. You know, I would love to come visit your space station. Come by for a coffee. Yeah. And I won't have to worry about osteoporosis or my bones degrading because, you know, we got Speaker 1 39:37 a solution. Especially listening to lens on board. Yeah, exactly. Alex 39:42 In an isolated environment. I'm not Yeah, not trying to get infected with that, but that's awesome. And what what do you predict the future of Astro mycology is in the next, you know, one 510 50 years. Speaker 1 39:59 Well We're currently with witnessing a race to space like all different countries, different institutions, everyone is actually looking into space and trying to exploit it and plan as much as possible. So, Astro mycology is going to make a difference. Because if we're going anywhere, we're taking fungi. So we actually, if we're taking them, we might as well take advantage and have them as our allies. And for the ones that might not be our allies, we need to understand them as much as possible. And quickly because space exploration is not waiting for the research to be done. So we need to hurry up and do as much research as possible. Because we don't want to get in trouble once the space exploration gets more crazy than what is already. Alex 40:48 And what has been the most rewarding aspect of your work. And it could be a single day, you know that you made an amazing discovery, or he got an award or just day to day, you know, what, what, what, what wakes you up in the morning and gets you excited. Speaker 1 41:06 I like I I love finding new things. So finding something that I haven't seen before, regardless of being something really impactful, or just a new fungi that I had never seen under the microscope is absolutely amazing. But I teach I teach a lot and one of the most rewarding things is actually seeing the face of the students seeing that all moment, you know, when they see something that captivates them, or that they find interesting, that is one of the most rewarding things being able to actually show them something new. But of course, any exciting research is already a good motive to wake up in the morning. Alex 41:58 And this is kind of similar to the question about if life exists on other planets. But have you heard of the panspermia theory? Unknown Speaker 42:06 Yes, of course, I teach about it. Great. Alex 42:09 Awesome. So what? Yeah, what's your what's your opinion on panspermia? Speaker 1 42:16 That's the thing. The origin of life is a very complex topic. And there are many different theories. And some of them have already been proven wrong. But many of them are still open. And what I personally believe is that there isn't one single right theory, I think that there were a lot of different elements that made life happen and evolve to the current state. So yes, there might have been substances, and maybe even basic life forms or basic structures very similar to the first life form that might have come from Malta dark planet, or just chemicals that once they actually entered our planet, together with the mixture that we already had here, allowed for the formation of basic structures that ended up developing into life forms. So yes, everything is possible. Basically, Alex 43:20 everything is possible. I love it. And so I'll let you sleep. I know it's extremely late there. It's like what in the morning, but fit in where where can people continue to follow your work and get updated on fungi in the space? Well, Speaker 1 43:40 the common places where you find researchers, I guess, ResearchGate, Google Scholar, LinkedIn, I'm also on Twitter. Then there's the university webpage at Macquarie University of Science and Technology. I think that's about it. Alex 43:58 Okay, yeah. And then and then your radio show from your space station coming soon. That people can subscribe to that. That'd be quite cool. Yeah, just point point your, your phone at the sky and you'll you'll get connected to mark his space station. That's it's a nice idea. Yeah, I'm excited for you. That'd be fun. Well, thank you for coming on. I really appreciate it and staying up to have this very out of the world. This world conversation. This has been amazing, and I love it. Super, super exciting. And thank you everyone for tuning in and tuning in to another episode of the mushroom revival podcast. I could not do it without you. So so excited. Wherever you're listening in the world. I hope that you enjoy the show. And if you want to benefit the show in any way, we don't have a Patreon or any way that you can donate monetarily directly, but we do have a functional mushroom company mushroom revival. In which we sell organic, functional mushroom, powders, gummies capsules, tinctures. And so you can check that out. And also my newest book, The Little Book of mushrooms is on there as well. And if you don't want to spend any money, that's totally fine. That's what we're here for to educate people for free. So we have a bunch of free ebooks on there as well that you can download for free. And then a ton of blogs, you could read to the recipes, stuff on all the all everything you can imagine on on mushrooms and fungi and all of our podcasts are on there as well. With all the show notes that you can go deep into all are different episodes. And also, you know, as Martha was explaining, in the beginning, we want more people into fungi and mushrooms and get excited about this. So if you learn something cool about this episode, I mean there's tons of fun facts that you could spread to all your friends and family and strangers that you meet on the street or you know, your person checking you out at the grocery store. Tell them about Astro mycology and panspermia and how fungi are can survive in space and all this cool stuff. So get people excited about mushrooms and fungi and just nature in general. Inspiration goes a long way. So with that, thank you so much, much love and may the spores be with you Transcribed by https://otter.ai
