Archive for 2010
You know it is a good day at the library when you walk by the magazine rack and see a false-color electron micrograph image of a conidiophore on a cover. It was the cover of the May 22, edition of ScienceNews, which happened to contain a feature article entitled I, Mold by Laura Bell. It [...]
Tags: Aspergillus, Candida, Cryptococcus, fungal disease, medical mycology, mold, ScienceNews
More museums ought to do stuff like this. The National Museum of Natural History in Sofia, Bulgaria recently put together a display, The mushrooms – familiar or dangerous: Briefly presented is kingdom Fungi – characteristics, distribution, and systematics. Photos and replicas show the most popular edible mushrooms and their poisonous counterparts, and how to distinguish [...]
Tags: Bulgaria, mushrooms, Science Centric
If you plan on collecting more than “a gallon” of mushrooms in the State of Washington, you better get your permit. Details in Commercial mushroom permits available published by the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin: Permits for commercial mushroom gathering in the three Blue Mountain forests are now available. The permits are required for anyone intending to [...]
Tags: commercial collecting, mushroom collecting, permits, Washington state, wild mushrooms
The Yeast Resource Center Public Image Repository (YRC PIR) is a large database of fluorescence microscopy images of yeast, with a focus on the important model organism Saccharomyces cerevisiae with some attention given to S. pombe. 84,270 Experiments 530,982 images ~450 gigabytes of data Not bad. A press release posted at 7th Space offers a [...]
Tags: fluorescence microscopy, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, yeast, Yeast Resource Center Public Image Repository, YRC PIR
A couple of days ago, I was perusing some wonderful stuff at a local bird seed and garden supply establishment. It was like an oasis in the middle of town. The property took up a whole city block and was what remained of an old farm that existed on the high prairie that is now [...]
Tags: art, fungal sculpture, garden decorations, JJ Potts, mycoart, sculpture
Afghan poppy farmers, who grow a big chunk of the poppies used to supply the world with opium, are accusing NATO of infecting their fields with a poppy-killing fungus. They just might be right. According to Fungus hits Afghan opium poppies: A serious disease is affecting opium poppies in Afghanistan, Antonio Maria Costa, the head [...]
Tags: biocontrol, mycoherbacide, opium, Papaver somniferum, Pleospora papaveracea, poppies
Valley Fever, also known as coccidioidomycosis, is an infection caused by a fungus endemic to the dry Southwest region of the United Stated. Although the causative agent, Coccidioides immitis, it is known to exist in the Chihuahua Desert region there is a large discrepancy between the number of cases reported in Arizona and neighboring New [...]
Tags: Coccidioides immitis, coccidioidomycosis, New Mexico, nikkomycin Z, valley fever
An interesting article at FastCompany.com describes a sustainable design project–What would you ask nature? Thanks to a smart TED talk by biologist Janine Beynus that made the rounds a few years ago, books like Biomimicry: Innovation Inspired by Nature, and new online resources like AskNature.org, more and more designers are realizing a simple truth when [...]
Tags: biomimicry, mycelium, nature-inspired design, sustainable living
I do not know how Kevin Lewis of Boston.com found out about a forthcoming Evolution and Human Behavior paper by Pacheco-Cobos, L. et al., “Sex Differences in Mushroom Gathering: Men Expend More Energy to Obtain Equivalent Benefits” but you gotta’ respect him for it. In his column, Uncommon Knowledge, Lewis briefly describes the results of [...]
Tags: gathering mushrooms, human behavior, mushroom gathering, mushroom hunting
There are some interesting reviews of iPhone and/or iPad apps planned for future posts, but in the mean time, here is a run down of some apps of interest to the mycology community in particular. Note: All descriptions are from the developers websites or from iTunes. Some of these look good, others… not so much. [...]
Tags: iPad, iPhone, mycoapps, mycology apps, software
It’s not every day you get clued in on a story of possible mycological interest by visiting the Drudge Report (FYI, to balance things out, I also check The Huffington Post). But, there it was–Potentially deadly fungus spreading in US, Canada. A potentially deadly strain of fungus is spreading among animals and people in the [...]
Tags: cryptococcosis, Cryptococcus gattii, fungal disease, medical mycology
It looks like things are going to get worse before they get better when it comes to bats and the fungal scourge of white nose syndrome (WNS). Over the past month there has been steady production of web updates on the spread of the disease and recently there has been an uptick. What Can Be [...]
Tags: bats, white nose syndrome, WNS
A blog called The Stir recently had a short post on the most hated foods. According to 9 Foods We Love to Hate, mushrooms came it at number 5. In this admittedly unscientific poll, the only foods ranked worse than mushrooms were anchovies, onions, liver and tofu. Well! Fungus is a Food? Now my interest [...]
Tags: cooking, edible mushrooms, food, mushrooms
It is possible that leaving an agar plate laying around the lab for a month could produce something akin to art. Or, microbes can be deliberately arranged on a nutrient surface to produce interesting images a la Nial Hamilton. Then again, when it comes to Petri dish art, there is no reason why any living [...]
Tags: art, biology-inspired, Klari Reis, Petri dishes
Thanks to a tip from @mushrooming, we learn of some recent research out of Japan that could lead to greater yields of mushrooms. It sounds like something Nicola Tesla would have tried (who knows, maybe he even did) but according to Lightning-powered mushrooms could boost food yields: Japanese farming lore has long observed that plentiful [...]
Tags: electricity, mushroom growing, nameko, shiitake
Word on the web is that people are getting excited about morels. One of the guys MycoRant follows on twitter has mentioned getting his gear ready and making a few preliminary forays to check things out. In fact reports are already starting to come in about successful hunts. ‘Shroom, ‘shroom, ‘shroom: Guess who went morel [...]
Tags: Morchella, morels, mushroom hunting
Strobel’s mycodiesel project maybe getting some competition from researchers in Spain according to Direct Production of Biodiesel from the Fungus M. circinelloides; Opportunity to Enhance Yield with Genetic Engineering: Researchers in Spain have demonstrated the direct transformation of biomass consisting of the fungus M. circinelloides into biodiesel compliant with ASTM D6751 and EN14213 and 14214 [...]
Tags: biodiesel, biofuel, Mucor, mycodiesel
Mushrooms are cute. At least some of them are. And whether people like to eat them or not, and whether or not people understand their ecological importance, almost everyone will agree that they make darned good fantasy creatures and scenery. They make for some pretty cute dolls too. The Cute Shrooms of Mushroomland Some of [...]
Tags: animation, mushroom dolls, mushroom film, mushroomland, Natasha Guruleva
Well, MycoRant will help if possible. I got a message today from someone who is looking for one Dr. Gary Mills. The request is as follows, as it was received: Dear Sir —– I am trying to locate Dr. Gary Mills, who once worked for Terry Farms, (producer of farmed morels, based on Dr. Mills’ [...]
Tags: Gary Mills, growing morels, morels, Terry Farms
Now here is an interesting idea. Treat cows suffering from bovine tuberculosis (bTB) with mushroom extracts. There seems to be little (no) actual evidence this might work, but what the heck. A company called RPF Bioscience has a product called Myco Formula 5 which is touted as a treatment for bTB. RPF Bioscience is one [...]
Tags: bovine TB, bTB, mushroom extracts, RPF Bioscience
