following the russian results, an american team at the albert einstein college of medicine of yeshiva university in new york began experimenting with radiation exposure of melanin and melanized fungi. they found that ionizing radiation increased the ability of melanin to support an important metabolic reaction, and that "cryptococcus neoformans" fungi grew three times faster than normal. microbiologist ekaterina dadachova suggested such fungi could serve as a food supply and source of radiation protection for interplanetary astronauts, who would be exposed to cosmic rays.