Black Fungus Uses Radiation as Energy Source

In a vaguely related story, a "Hexapus" has been found, though they think it is the result of a birth defect, not an evolutionary turn. Personally I don't like anything that has more than 4 legs. I realize this is a shortsighted predjudice, except for spiders, spiders deserve my hate.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080303/sc_afp/sciencebritainanimalhexapusoffbeat

Hi Roger.

And what the hell is the matter with spiders? I have six different spiders as pets, they don't harm me and I don't harm them. At least they don't shit all over my garden as the neighbours dogs and cats do, and they keep away all the vermin!

Spencer.

What's wrong with spiders?

Well, lets start with those eight eyes, that seems a bit overdone, doesn't it?


Next consider the venom delivering fangs, really natures way of saying "I'm not cute"

Next we have the eight legs, again, a bit superfluous.

Finally we have their method of catching prey, ambush with a sticky web, not very nice.

In conclusion, I'd rather have this

than this

But to each their own.

So, has anybody (besides the Japanese, that is) discovered any 200 foot tall radiation-spewing dinosaurs feeding on Chernobyl's radiation yet?

So maybe with a little selective breeding we can come up with a way to turn the tunnels under Yucca Mountain into mushroom farms and bake glow-in-the-dark pizzas for romantic no-longer-candlelit dinners? The mind boggles...

Those pizzas will, of course, be an exclusive product of EM-ER NA Productions™...

Cross that radio-active black fungus with the truffle! These ugly yet tasty fungal nuggets fetch a large price per pound, and we all know from movies that radio-activity always causes living things to grow to gargantuan proportions, so you can just imagine the huge profits that await.