UV radiation doesn’t just burn the skin — it breaks DNA apart at the molecular level. Each hit forces cells to repair ...

To see, Fujita’s team turned to Physcomitrium patens, a well-studied species moss commonly called spreading earthmoss. They ...

Mosses thrive in the most extreme environments on Earth, from the peaks of the Himalayas to the sands of Death Valley, the ...

Archivists who work in museums must be very bored. Who would think of placing taxidermied specimens from 1922 under ...

The moss was attached to the International Space Station, fully exposed to the harsh environment of the cosmos. Not only did ...

Researchers discovered that moss spores can survive nearly a year exposed directly to space. Despite intense UV radiation and temperature swings, most spores remained viable when returned to Earth.

Astronauts strapped moss spores to the outside of the International Space Station for nine months - and most of them survived ...

When ultraviolet light hits ice—whether in Earth's polar regions or on distant planets—it triggers a cascade of chemical ...

The researchers simulated space conditions by exposing the three tissues to UV radiation and freezing and high temperatures.

The spores’ thick outer walls acted like built-in shields, helping them withstand extreme radiation and temperature swings ...

The plant continued to thrive in the vacuum of space during an experiment conducted on the International Space Station.

In 2005, scientists announced that moss could grow inside of spaceships. The little plants the scientists sent up on NASA ...