Astronauts have never truly been alone. In 1988, on board the Russian space station Mir, the crew noticed something had blanketed one of their windows – from the outside. Whatever it was had even begun to infiltrate its way into the station, slowly destroying the window's titanium-quartz surface. The blanket was eventually revealed to be fungi that had managed to hitch a ride into space by clinging onto the astronauts themselves, Space.com reports. Amazingly, the fungi had managed to adapt to the space environment, surviving and thriving on windows, control panels, and air conditioners. The on board the space station even had their food and water contaminated. Although this was the first instance of a hijacker damaging the space station, it wasn't the last. Many space-borne fungi remain dormant during launch, until "activating" and reproducing to form thick, living mats on various regions in the space station. The fungi can threaten the health of those on board as well as damage electronics and plumbing. Since the 1988 incident, there have been numerous attempts to establish robust cleaning routines for scrubbing the fungi off walls and equipment, in an attempt to prevent the organisms from causing serious issues. Despite the concern surrounding the risks, scientists are trying to take advantage of the fungi's abilities. One team associated with the European Space Agency (ESA) recently conducted hypergravity experiments on fungi to better understand how these organisms survive effortlessly in the harsh environment of space. If these mechanisms are understood, fungi may be able to be used to build off-world settlements and be incorporated into off-world medications. In 2016, researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California launched fungi into space for the first time on board the International Space Station. The team studied how the ISS environment caused the species to create certain molecules it doesn't produce on Earth. "We are never going to be able to get rid of fungi entirely as we venture into space, so we need to understand them," André Antunes, a researcher who is part of the recent ESA study, said in a statement published on Monday. In addition, they offer positive opportunities as well as risks. Down on Earth fungi are employed to make food - such as yeast for fermentation - as well as medicines, chemical enzymes for industry as well as metal nanoparticles used in numerous fields. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

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By Samrhitha A (Reuters) -Fortinet sank nearly 18% and sparked a selloff in cybersecurity stocks with a dismal forecast that

Technology giant Meta has rejected an accusation of online censorship as protesters called for language around women’s bodies to be normalised. Demonstrators gathered outside the company’s London office in King’s Cross on Friday morning. She Oath, described as a female empowerment charity, joined representatives from period product firm Bodyform, which is running a campaign aimed at normalising use of words such as vagina, clitoris and vulva online. These are our bodies and we shouldn’t be shamed or cast into the shadows for what we naturally have to experience Brookmorgan Henry-Rennie, She Oath Bodyform said that since launching its campaign it has been “slapped with multiple violations of Meta’s ad policy – deeming their content as too sexual and labelling it with an 18+ warning”. It says menstrual health “shouldn’t be censored” and doing so makes “important subjects, that are already taboo, almost impossible to talk about”, affecting lives and health. But Meta said some adverts had been removed by mistake and had since been reinstated, and apologised for any confusion. The company said it has no blanket ban on words like menopause or vagina, adding that adverts are governed by a stricter set of policies “because they receive paid distribution to appear in people’s feeds”. She Oath’s founder Brookmorgan Henry-Rennie said: “We use our platform to educate, entertain and inform around subject matters like authentic confidence, women’s health and well-being. “So this shadow-banning is not just depriving trauma-experienced girls and women from gaining access to our resources, it’s putting them in further danger. These are our bodies and we shouldn’t be shamed or cast into the shadows for what we naturally have to experience. “If it wasn’t for Bodyform’s ads being banned, we wouldn’t have even realised that our posts were being deprioritised. “Meta really does need to do better.” The adverts were removed by mistake by our automated review systems and have since been reinstated. We apologise for any confusion caused Meta spokesperson Ruth Gresty, spokesperson for Bodyform, said: “It’s unfortunate but not surprising that our latest campaign, which calls out the unnecessary censorship of words commonly used to talk about, describe and define women’s bodies and their experiences, has been censored by some social media companies. “In doing so, these companies have simply underlined the need for campaigns of this nature that seek to break down the barriers that prevent women from being able to speak openly and confidently about their bodies. “We at Bodyform will not be deterred from our mission to make talking about the female body normal.” A spokesperson for Meta, which owns Facebook, said: “We want Facebook to be a place where people can express themselves and we are proud of the way our community uses the platform to have important and open conversations about women’s health. “The adverts were removed by mistake by our automated review systems and have since been reinstated. We apologise for any confusion caused.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live AI developing faster than laws aiming to regulate it, academic warns Facebook Marketplace is most complained-about online retail platforms UKRI announces £50 million to develop trustworthy and secure AI

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The Moon is a constant in the night sky, but all is not actually as it seems. It turns out that scientists have discovered the Moon is drifting away from Earth, and it’s changing everything we thought we knew about our planet’s relationship with its only natural satellite. It’s also having a very real impact on the length of days on our planet – albeit at an incredibly slow rate. By moving away from Earth over the course of millions of years, the Moon is simultaneously making the length of the average day longer. A study by a team at the University of Wisconsin-Madison focused on rock from a formation aged at 90 million years. By doing so, they were able to analyse the Earth’s interactions with the Moon 1.4 billion years ago. It turns out that the Moon is moving away from Earth at us at 3.82 centimetres a year. That means that, eventually, it’ll result in Earth days lasting 25 hours in 200 million years time. Stephen Meyers, who is a professor of geoscience at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, said: “As the moon moves away, the Earth is like a spinning figure skater who slows down as they stretch their arms out.” He added: “One of our ambitions was to use astrochronology to tell time in the most distant past, to develop very ancient geological time scales. “We want to be able to study rocks that are billions of years old in a way that is comparable to how we study modern geologic processes.” It’s not the only story that changes our understanding of the Moon recently. Scientists have also just uncovered billions of years’ worth of secrets buried beneath the surface of the moon – all thanks to China’s space programme, which has uncovered hidden structures which can help us start to piece together the Moon’s past. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings

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Tesla has begun notifying current and former employees whose information was included in a confidential data breach in May.

Madison Beer recently talked to xQc about and he asked her how she is managing her music and streaming career together