JOPLIN, Missouri -- The death toll from the Joplin tornado is now up to 151 people. That includes at least three people who died after they became sick with a fungal infection.
One of the many horrors after a tornado is an extremely rare flesh-invading fungus called zygomycosis.
"It's really quite rare. I've never seen a case in over thirty years," said Dr. Craig Sanford of the American College of Emergency Physicians.
Dr. Sanford says the infections caused by exposure to a fungus found in soil and decaying vegetation. It can kill as many as half of those infected.
"With the winds, it stirs up the fungi and the spores, so we inhale them. Or if you get it on some debris, it can poke your skin," Dr. Sanford said.
The fungi are extremely invasive and start causing clots in the blood vessels.
"The blood flow doesn't go through the blood vessels and then the soft tissue or whatever tissue does not have blood flow and therefore will die," Dr. Sanford said.
The black, dead tissue has to removed.
Zygomycosis is most prevalent in people with weakened immune systems or diabetes, but can affect healthy people who have severe injuries.
Many of the patients in Joplin who had the fungus were hospitalized already with severe trauma and cuts.
"These are very tragic situations and just very unusual," Dr. Sanford said.
The infections seen in Joplin took about five to ten days to appear, which explains the delay in hearing about it after the tornado.
Terence McKenna - Mushrooms are an Extraterrestrial Probe?
Could the act of consuming a mushroom send a signal to an extraterrestrial civilization, allowing them to establish the location of intelligent life in the universe?
I'll be living easy with wide open eyes
I'll be colouring the pictures in my mind
Finally i'm feeling everything's allowed
Consequence is drifting from me on a cloud
Let the mind go astray
And the body will pay
It's like driving for days
On the freeway
Do the dont's, eat the moon
Break apart the cocoon
Life can never end to soon
Oh, Magic Mushroom
Get a grip on what was there before the turn
The wheel is in your hands, the tires burn
And beyond another glowing ball will rise
In the glove compartment you'll find paradise
Let the mind go astray
And the body will pay
It's like driving for days
On the freeway
Do the dont's, eat the moon
Break apart the cocoon
Life can never end to soon
Oh, Magic Mushroom
Psilocybe Ovoideocystidiata patch in Maryland. Mid-April, 2012. Fruits are dried out due to a long stretch without rain. Used Image Stabilization tool on this video, so it has that weird, spacey look.
The Bacteria are a large group of unicellular, prokaryote, microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals. Bacteria are ubiquitous in every habitat on Earth, growing in soil, acidic hot springs, radioactive waste, water, and deep in the Earth's crust, as well as in organic matter and the live bodies of plants and animals. There are typically 40 million bacterial cells in a gram of soil and a million bacterial cells in a millilitre of fresh water; in all, there are approximately five nonillion (5×1030) bacteria on Earth, forming much of the world's biomass. Bacteria are vital in recycling nutrients, with many steps in nutrient cycles depending on these organisms, such as the fixation of nitrogen from the atmosphere and putrefaction. However, most bacteria have not been characterized, and only about half of the phyla of bacteria have species that can be grown in the laboratory.The study of bacteria is known as bacteriology, a branch of microbiology.
There are approximately ten times as many bacterial cells in the human flora of bacteria as there are human cells in the body, with large numbers of bacteria on the skin and as gut flora. The vast majority of the bacteria in the body are rendered harmless by the protective effects of the immune system, and a few are beneficial. However, a few species of bacteria are pathogenic and cause infectious diseases, including cholera, syphilis, anthrax, leprosy and bubonic plague. The most common fatal bacterial diseases are respiratory infections, with tuberculosis alone killing about 2 million people a year, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa.[6] In developed countries, antibiotics are used to treat bacterial infections and in agriculture, so antibiotic resistance is becoming common. In industry, bacteria are important in sewage treatment, the production of cheese and yoghurt through fermentation, as well as in biotechnology, and the manufacture of antibiotics and other chemicals.
Once regarded as plants constituting the class Schizomycetes, bacteria are now classified as prokaryotes. Unlike cells of animals and other eukaryotes, bacterial cells do not contain a nucleus and rarely harbour membrane-bound organelles. Although the term bacteria traditionally included all prokaryotes, the scientific classification changed after the discovery in the 1990s that prokaryotes consist of two very different groups of organisms that evolved independently from an ancient common ancestor. These evolutionary domains are called Bacteria and Archaea.
The Kingdom Fungi includes some of the most important organisms, both in terms of their ecological and economic roles. By breaking down dead organic material, they continue the cycle of nutrients through ecosystems. In addition, most vascular plants could not grow without the symbiotic fungi, or mycorrhizae, that inhabit their roots and supply essential nutrients. Other fungi provide numerous drugs (such as penicillin and other antibiotics), foods like mushrooms, truffles and morels, and the bubbles in bread, champagne, and beer.
Fungi also cause a number of plant and animal diseases: in humans, ringworm, athlete's foot, and several more serious diseases are caused by fungi. Because fungi are more chemically and genetically similar to animals than other organisms, this makes fungal diseases very difficult to treat. Plant diseases caused by fungi include rusts, smuts, and leaf, root, and stem rots, and may cause severe damage to crops. However, a number of fungi, in particular the yeasts, are important "model organisms" for studying problems in genetics and molecular biology.
Gorgeous examples of Oregon Spring Truffles described by John Getz; Included, he describes the best rake and modified commercial rake for delicately finding Oregon spring truffles. Close ups of marbling of fresh oregon truffles. Shot very low budget on a Kodak point and shot but many of the truffle close ups are exceptional none the less. Note: Never rake to find black truffles, always use a very good nosed friend, a dog for black truffles as they are deep and raking causes excessive damage to roots etc...
John Michael Getz "Both rakes and dogs are just tools, and either one can be misused. It is really up to the handler. I believe dogs are the best choice for black truffles, and with white truffles rakes are more efficient as long as you are careful and selective."
At the 37th Annual Santa Cruz Fungus Fair 2011. The Fungus Federation of Santa Cruz Present "Deadly or Dangerous" with panelists Dr. Denis Benjamin, Dr. Todd Mitchell, Henry Young and Debbie Viess.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Oh_RcSFU8U&hd=1 This is a video of a Psilocybe from section Cordisporae, found Oct. 20, 2011 in El Saucal, Mpio. de Acajete, Veracruz, Mexico. Photos of this find are here: http://mushroomobserver.org/obs/86004
Photo sequence of Clathrus ruber developing from 4/16/2012 - 4/22/2012. Taken every 10 minutes with a Pentax Optio W90. Enjoy!
The mushroom makes a stinky (smells like rotting death) goo that coats the inside of the "cage" insects are attracted and spread the spore goo. I'm not sure if it's introduced, but I've only seen it in Golden Gate Park and up here by the bike trail in wood chips. Never in the woods. Makes me think it's not native. I guess it's rare in Netherlands, but maybe native? I'm no expert on this fungus and its habits but I've been watching this one for the second year now. It fruits Jan-April here, lying dormant in egg form until a warm spell comes around. Then it opens fairly rapidly. The weather was a bit dry when I took this sequence so it might open up more fully in more humid conditions. Also I dug these up so they might expand more undisturbed.
Ian Garrone started Far West Fungi- out of his garage- 25 years ago to introduce America to the wide variety of edible fungi. Today, the Garrone family farm 60,000 square feet of greenhouses filled with organic, sawdust-based mushrooms. They sell over 40 different types of mushroom at their San Francisco store, a relatively rare offering, given that button mushrooms account for about 87% of all domestic mushroom sales.
Garrone believes that mushrooms can add balance to your diet, serving as an ideal meat substitute. Mushrooms that grow on trees (the type grown at the Far West Fungi farm) are also considered medicinal.
Garrone didn't get into the business to help save the world, but somehow he's managed to help save his corner of the world. After San Francisco's last oil spill he helped provide an indigenous strain of oyster mushroom to a bioremediation project.
