[ipodopt]

We don't want a material that builds and repairs itself?

Anyhow, seems like they think it is the concentration of melanin in the fungi. The melanin has been sequenced and it is the same type found in human skin. Maybe we will see this adaptation in space fairing humans... Wonder if current black astronauts are less effected by radiation.

EDIT: Probably something that will seem so obvious in hindsight.

[T-A]

Check out the Martian settlers in Spin:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spin_(novel)