Dangerous Fungal Spores May Travel the Globe On 'Stratospheric Superhighway' (science.org) 47
sciencehabit shares a repot from Science.org: Scientists have captured fungal spores cruising in the inhospitable environment of the stratosphere, much higher than commercial aircraft fly. When brought back to the lab, the researchers found that some of the spores -- including pathogens of plants and people -- had survived intercontinental trips and could be cultured in the lab. Although spores and microbes have been detected in the stratosphere before, the new results come from a cheap, homespun sampling device dangled from weather balloons, the project could help researchers figure out what traits and conditions allow spores to survive a swing through the stratosphere and how they get up there in the first place. The work could also be a first step towards an atmospheric monitoring system that could nip emerging fungal pathogens in the bud, the study's authors reported at a conference of the European Geophysical Union.
After five preliminary flights, the team has already learned a lot. Based on DNA sequencing analysis, they identified spores from 235 genera, including fungi that infect blackberries and carrots in the United States and Japan, and one species, Naganishia albida, that can make immunocompromised people sick. In the lab, they were able to revive and culture spores from 15 different fungal species, among them several plant pathogens. Mostly, the results show that their sampler works. Now, the researchers want to set up regular flights to track airborne fungal biodiversity and seasonal variations. They also want to identify how events such as wildfires or volcanic eruptions inject spores into the stratosphere.
After five preliminary flights, the team has already learned a lot. Based on DNA sequencing analysis, they identified spores from 235 genera, including fungi that infect blackberries and carrots in the United States and Japan, and one species, Naganishia albida, that can make immunocompromised people sick. In the lab, they were able to revive and culture spores from 15 different fungal species, among them several plant pathogens. Mostly, the results show that their sampler works. Now, the researchers want to set up regular flights to track airborne fungal biodiversity and seasonal variations. They also want to identify how events such as wildfires or volcanic eruptions inject spores into the stratosphere.
Shut the 'Stratospheric Superhighway' Down! (Score:4, Funny)
This 'Superhighway' is going to end us all. No ones even guarding this airstream.
Shut it down!
--
Pop music, disco music, and heavy metal music is about shutting out the tensions of life, putting it away. - Peter Tork
Just imagine (Score:2)
Ophiocordiceps Unilateralis goes into stratosphere, mutates due to cosmic radiation and returns to Earth to create zombie apocalypse!
What about: it increases IQ by 50 points? (Score:2)
We've done zombie movies. A 50 point increase in IQ could be remarkable to create a plot from...
Re: What about: it increases IQ by 50 points? (Score:1, Insightful)
Boring... (Score:2, Insightful)
Yes, I'm well aware that the discovery of the true nature of Americans, as opposed to the nice face that they've portrayed for the past 80 years, is a shock to many both in the USA and around the world. But he, and Brexit, LePen, the AfD etc. are what you get when our lords and masters fail to engage with the concerns of large chunks of the population. This ISN'T to defend Trump; he's a disaster. But he's a symptom of a very serious disease that few, if any, are seeking to address; last time round everyone
Re: (Score:1, Troll)
Yes, I'm well aware that the discovery of the true nature of Americans, as opposed to the nice face that they've portrayed for the past 80 years, is a shock to many both in the USA and around the world. But he, and Brexit, LePen, the AfD etc. are what you get when our lords and masters fail to engage with the concerns of large chunks of the population. This ISN'T to defend Trump; he's a disaster. But he's a symptom of a very serious disease that few, if any, are seeking to address; last time round everyone waited for Trump's reign to end, breathed a sigh of relief when it did, pretended that he hadn't got something close to a majority, and went back to business as usual. So we got Trump v2. Even now there are a few focusing on claims that Trump didn't actually win fairly. SO WHAT? Work out why he got as many votes as he did, and do something about it.
Yes, I'm well aware that the discovery of the true nature of Americans, as opposed to the nice face that they've portrayed for the past 80 years, is a shock to many both in the USA and around the world. But he, and Brexit, LePen, the AfD etc. are what you get when our lords and masters fail to engage with the concerns of large chunks of the population. This ISN'T to defend Trump; he's a disaster. But he's a symptom of a very serious disease that few, if any, are seeking to address; last time round everyone waited for Trump's reign to end, breathed a sigh of relief when it did, pretended that he hadn't got something close to a majority, and went back to business as usual. So we got Trump v2. Even now there are a few focusing on claims that Trump didn't actually win fairly. SO WHAT? Work out why he got as many votes as he did, and do something about it.
Exactly.
If the "respectable" people can't stomach deporting (or hopefully never admitting), say, illegal alien gangsters - for just one example - then the public will turn to un-respectable people to get it done.
It's only surprising how long it took.
Oh dear, another one who misses the point (Score:3)
This isn't ultimately about immigration, though that's one of the more obvious symptoms, at least in the way that immigration is experienced by many of the supporters of these miscreants. It's about a far wider range of issues; the steady enshitification of their lives because their incomes aren't rising, and their interests are being ignored. Yes, the reality of immigration, especially in the UK where it's consuming vast amounts of public sector resources without its responsibility being recognised, is a s
Re: Oh dear, another one who misses the point (Score:2)
in the way that immigration is experienced by many of the supporters of these miscreants.
not at all? So what does that mean?
Re: Boring... (Score:3, Informative)
Obama deported the most illegal immigrants in history. But his fault was that he didn't demonize Mexicans.
Apparently that's what the majority of Americans wanted!
Re: (Score:2)
Obama deported the most illegal immigrants in history. But his fault was that he didn't demonize Mexicans.
Apparently that's what the majority of Americans wanted!
Things changed a lot since O'blama was president. Cheeto's election was based more on opposition to what the leaders of the Democrats decided to make mandatory opinion that dare not be opposed in order to be a Democrat.
Re: (Score:1)
I thought the dog whistle started with, "when Mexicos sends its people . . . " and culminated with "they're eating the dogs".
Re: (Score:2)
I thought the dog whistle started with, "when Mexicos sends its people . . . " and culminated with "they're eating the dogs".
Oh, the Republicans have their own brand of insanity.
But the Democrats have their very own, and you must obey their ideas.
A Republican might hear about migrants eating people's pets, shake his headband say - that's just Trump being Trump.
Democrat Seth Moulton says he doesn't want biological males running over his daughters on their sports teams, and his campaign manager and other staffers resign, the Democrats called for his apology, then resign because they fully support biological males running o
Re: Boring... (Score:2)
If the "respectable" people can't stomach deporting (or hopefully never admitting), say, illegal alien gangsters - for just one example - then the public will turn to un-respectable people to get it done.
It's only surprising how long it took.
Maybe "respectable" people, which includes what, all former presidents of both parties, including the present one from his first term, understood it's not as simple as waving a hand and saying they're all "gangsters" and the final solution to the "problem" being entirely extrajudicial involving one-way internment camps in El Salvador and Libya apparently.
You are right to put respectable in air quotes, because when you set the bar so fucking low that all you have to do is say THAT ^ sounds like a bad idea, w
Re: (Score:2)
Exactly.
If the "respectable" people can't stomach deporting (or hopefully never admitting), say, illegal alien gangsters - for just one example - then the public will turn to un-respectable people to get it done.
It's only surprising how long it took.
The left needs to come a little closer to the middle if they want to win again.
In polls, 85%+ of the general public is against transgender male-at-birth athletes competing in womens sports. Yet the democrat party was universally willing to fall on their swords for this. That is why we have Trump 2.0. They consider deported gang members more important than the American public.
Concerns of the population (Score:1)
when our lords and masters fail to engage with the concerns of large chunks of the population.
OR, you know, you could have a political system where the large chunks of the population can directly address their own needs without need the intermediate of some oligarch sponsored by corporation in the government. /s.
We could call this revolutionary idea "Direct democracy"
This ISN'T to defend Trump; he's a disaster. But he's a symptom of a very serious disease that few, if any, are seeking to address;
There's a country in middle of Europe where we seem to be a bit more immune to far right extremism gaining too much influence. Not only now but also last century, too.
The long tradition of direct democracy might have something to do wit
Re: (Score:1)
Even now there are a few focusing on claims that Trump didn't actually win fairly. SO WHAT? Work out why he got as many votes as he did, and do something about it.
Working on claims that he didn't win fairly is literally doing that.
Arguing about the odd million is irrelevant (Score:3)
It's that he got tens of millions that matters. He may have genuinely got a bit less than 45% of the vote. But why did he get even that?
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
It's that he got tens of millions that matters. He may have genuinely got a bit less than 45% of the vote. But why did he get even that?
Both things clearly matter. If he didn't win the election fairly, then he didn't win. If he didn't win, then this presidency is illegitimate and he must be removed from office and prosecuted for his treason.
The answer to your question is obvious. A lot of Americans are total pieces of shit. They wanted him to hurt people.
Democracy says: 'What the people want is good' (Score:2)
You're no doubt right that 'a lot of Americans are total pieces of shit.' However for anyone who believes in democracy, this is a problem because if the people want the 'wrong' thing, there shouldn't be a way to stop them. The liberal elite tends to introduce the term 'liberal democracy' to the mix to justify the courts using the constitution to stop the most egregiously wrong things, though the subversion of the Supreme Court ever since its use to force through largely unconstrained abortion has made that
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
You're no doubt right that 'a lot of Americans are total pieces of shit.' However for anyone who believes in democracy, this is a problem because if the people want the 'wrong' thing, there shouldn't be a way to stop them.
They were not in fact stopped. They in fact stopped others from voting.
Re: (Score:1)
Yes, the dead and non-citizens. But seriously, you folks will regret when the truth finally out about the 2016-2020-2024 elections(probably in 30 years time so the crooks can escape justice), and you find out that it was 2020 that was the aberrant election with the highest level of anomaly.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, the dead and non-citizens.
It's terrible of you to refer to persons of color as "dead and non-citizens" but then, nobody who supports a racist rapist for president is anything other than a piece of shit.
Re: (Score:2)
If you're not talking about the rampant misinformation, propaganda, and ought right falsehoods, being peddled as 'news' throughout half the country than you're not even close to the problem. Who cares what you stand for or what you say if it's just filtered through a miasma of lies and distortions.
'Everybody lies' Gregory House (Score:2)
Whilst Trump has indulged in more significant and blatant lying, the disease is endemic and widespread across the US political system; Trump just did it to more effect.
To be clear: the liberal global elite and many of its supporters have done well over the past 35 years. Globalisation has bought them real prosperity. On the whole I'm one of those who has done well; my finances are more than sufficient for the lifestyle I aspire to.
But that's not the experience of many, many people. In the fly over states an
Re: (Score:2)
That's true but what's the difference what anyone says if its just going to be ignored or distorted for political gain. I've watched these channels, it's constant, over-the-top propaganda. People DO care (you can't say Bernie Saunders doesn't care), they're just vilified and drowned out by lies. trumps obvious deficiencies are carefully hidden to anyone in that propaganda matrix. Until the massive, propaganda machinery is addressed this will be the result.
Democrats could do better at that for sure, it's one
Re: (Score:2, Informative)
Yes, I'm well aware that the discovery of the true nature of Americans, as opposed to the nice face that they've portrayed for the past 80 years, is a shock to many both in the USA and around the world. But he, and Brexit, LePen, the AfD etc. are what you get when our lords and masters fail to engage with the concerns of large chunks of the population. This ISN'T to defend Trump; he's a disaster. But he's a symptom of a very serious disease that few, if any, are seeking to address; last time round everyone waited for Trump's reign to end, breathed a sigh of relief when it did, pretended that he hadn't got something close to a majority, and went back to business as usual. So we got Trump v2. Even now there are a few focusing on claims that Trump didn't actually win fairly. SO WHAT? Work out why he got as many votes as he did, and do something about it.
No... Brexit, LePen and Trump are what happen when large numbers of people fall victim to organised propaganda.
This is writ large in the UK where people are complaining about Immigration but fail to notice that the Tories (conservatives) deliberately made it worse and Labour, who've only been in power six months are fixing it.
This is because immigration isn't a hot button topic that's being ignored, it's because the propagandists at the Daily Mail, Express, Sun, et al. are publishing utter nonsense wh
No, it's not about immigration (Score:2)
It's about the marginalised believing they have no meaningful voice and believing, despite the evidence, that Trump and Farage etc DO hear their concerns unlike the ruling elites. Arguing the toss over immigration is losing sight of that more fundamental problem.
Marked down as Troll - you've upset someone (Score:1)
CONGRATULATIONS! Obviously a great post.
Re: (Score:2)
CONGRATULATIONS! Obviously a great post.
The exclusionists get really triggered and want anyone who doesn't walk in goose-step with them to be cancelled.
Especially when all I report is based on easily accessible facts.
Sometimes being marked as troll on Slashdot is admitting that that person is administering truth. I understand I am being a Cassandra. They are hell bent on not hearing it.
Re: Boring... (Score:2)
when our lords and masters fail to engage with the concerns of large chunks of the population.
I think you'll have to explain how large chunks of the population are heavily concerned about things they don't even know how to spell, have no functional knowledge of, no interest in learning anything about, they just get spun up and angry without thinking about anything because that's hard work.
So you're saying the game is to engage those concerns, that are entirely made up by the other team. And not ... to make up concerns for your own team... even though that totally worked, and explaining reality to pe
Re: (Score:2)
The liberal global elite and many of its supporters have done well over the past 35 years. Globalisation has bought them real prosperity. On the whole I'm one of those who has done well; my finances are more than sufficient for the lifestyle I aspire to.
But that's not the experience of many, many people. In the fly over states and the Rust belt things have not gone well. Enshitification has destroyed their quality of life, good jobs have become rarer and NOBODY seems to care. Then the Orange one shows an aw
Re: (Score:1)
Some countries are full with Zombies.
One I know about is even ruled by a Zombie.
Re: (Score:2)
We need more global warming for that.
https://youtu.be/OLNagvJHl3g?t... [youtu.be]
Re: (Score:2)
I think Mark Wahlberg was in that one. It was terrible.
Quick! (Score:2)
Egon (Score:2)
"the inhospitable environment of the stratosphere" (Score:2)
Can't be as bad flying Spirit... can it?
Re: (Score:2)
the inhospitable environment of the stratosphere
I thought this was literally their advertising slogan.
Exterminatus (Score:1)
Interactive Model showing "Atmospheric Hightways" (Score:1)
Candida Auris (Score:2)
I will be concerned if Candida Auris was found floating around and travelling around the world.
Multi drug resistance, high chance of death if you get infected with it.
why an altimeter? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I would think that a weather balloon can be bought without instruments, so you can add the instruments you want.
My question is why they need a barometric altimeter if they already have GPS
.
Re: (Score:2)