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Amazing article on the rapidly mutating space fungus that ate Mir.
Penetrating into every single corner of the station, they showed an enormous appetite and demonstrated their capacity to eat up even highly durable materials. A vivid example of the bacteria's' "outrage" is illustrated by what happened to the window of a transportation spacecraft that docked to Mir when piloted by its last crew. Some time after docking, the cosmonauts' attention was drawn to the rapidly deteriorating window glass. It was covered by a strange film, spreading "as quickly as in the horror movies," and became absolutely non-transparent.Link Discuss (Thanks, Dennis!)The test results raised the researchers' eyebrows. It turned out the quartz glass and the titan, which framed it, were damaged by a large colony of bacteria. As experts explained later, these microorganisms exuded a metabolism product--an acid so strong that it could easily corrode the window the creatures had settled on.
I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.