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Fungus Fire Spores With 180,000 G Acceleration

Hugh Pickens writes "Although a variety of spore discharge processes have evolved among the fungi, those with the longest ranges are powered by hydrostatic pressure and include 'squirt guns' that are most common in the Ascomycota and Zygomycota. In these fungi, fluid-filled stalks that support single spores or spore-filled sporangia, or cells called asci that contain multiple spores, are pressurized by osmosis. Because spores are discharged at such high speeds, most of the information on launch processes from previous studies has been inferred from mathematical models and is subject to a number of errors, but now Nicholas Money, an expert on fungi at Miami University, has recorded the discharges with high-speed cameras at 250,000 frames-a-second and discovered that fungi fire their spores with accelerations up to 180,000 g, calling it 'the fastest flight in nature.' Money and his students, in a justified fit of ecstasy, have created a video of the first fungus opera."

9 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. Nematocysts by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Nature has other fast biological processes. I will cite the Nematocyst cells that jellyfish employ to inject poison into their victims.

    Essentially creatures like jellyfish have cells that contain what looks like a coiled rope marinating in poison ... when the cell is stimulated, it squeezes and fires the rope out through the small opening on the outside of the cell and sends a rigid looking line instantly out several feet. This was thought to be one of the fastest biological processes for a while as estimates have placed the force on these coils to be 40,000 g to millions of gs.

    I saw a discovery channel special on this once and the video footage they showed up close of these cells reacting just gave you a skin crawling sensation all over your body. But after seeing that, it's no wonder certain box jellyfish or the Portuguese Man O' Wars (not actually jellyfish but a colony of Siphonophorae) can put poison through your skin, through your flesh and down to your bones/organs instantly.

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    1. Re:Nematocysts by aproposofwhat · · Score: 3, Funny
      The paper's quite interesting in it's own little way, but what made me grin was the description of the fungi as 'corprophilous'.

      Gotta love that shit...

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      One swallow does not a fellatrix make
    2. Re:Nematocysts by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      makes me wonder if someone ever measured the speed of a pinched out zit

  2. Fungus/fungi by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Fungus fires spores, or

    Fungi fire spores

    Pick one or the other

    1. Re:Fungus/fungi by Intron · · Score: 5, Funny

      Only you can prevent fungus fires.

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      Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
  3. Zerg! by chill · · Score: 4, Funny

    Zerg Spore Colonies in Starcraft. Better get 'em while they're young, from a safe distance. Watch for the rush.

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    Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
  4. Re:So Dr. Money... by fiordhraoi · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is it wrong to point out that this video of quickly expelled reproductive materials, taken by Dr. Money, could justifiably called a "Money shot?" :P

  5. Re:Loosely related acceleration question by thesandtiger · · Score: 3, Interesting

    That's another variation on the concept of Xeno's Paradox, really (wiki it). In both cases, in order for this to be an actual paradox, time would have to be infinitely smooth, as in not have a minimum possible unit - you can keep on having shorter and shorter amounts of time.

    From what I understand, because time and distance seem to be granular (with the minimum units being Planck distance and Planck seconds or something like that), the whole problem gets avoided since EVERYTHING is granular and the deceleration from one moment to the next (even before a full stop) would go in a kind of quantum way - either you're at a speed of 1000 planck distances per planck second, or you're at 999 planck distances per planck second, not 999.99 p/p etc.

    It made sense at the time I heard it, but you know, that was undergrad and I was probably really high.

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  6. Re:Fit of ecstasy? by WillDraven · · Score: 3, Funny

    You have clearly not eaten enough of the fungus to understand.

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