Chemists find fungal shrapnel in the air

[antares4141]

https://phys.org/news/2020-01-chemi...RfGOd8KJMJxd1GmwD4XsIZJsWcExqM1L7Y9k9jsZEpb2A

 

[Blue Jay]

Interesting and nice and clear for my tired brain to absorb. Thanks @ antares.

 

[antares4141]

Always been kind of obvious that we have ubiquitous outside mold in our air. I presume they count it, whatever "it" is, like they do pollen and other particulates. But traditionally not "shards".

Which leads me to ask. Has "it", always been just spores they count? And with current tech "shards" go completely under the radar? Then the question is what about indoors?

And are shards that dangerous? Let's put things in perspective. A spore can grow into an organism inside of your body.

But then tiny particles (any kind) can from my limited understanding, get past your lungs defenses to expel them. And end up lodged in your air sacs. What kind of consequences does that lead to?

And could a test be developed to diagnose the pathology.

 

[frozenborderline]

This further confirms erik johnson's theories about how mold behaves differently and more virulently in the wild than the lab... becoming more pathogenic through turning into nanoparticles that get past immune defense more easily

 

[antares4141]

This further confirms erik johnson's theories about how mold behaves differently and more virulently in the wild than the lab... becoming more pathogenic through turning into nanoparticles that get past immune defense more easily

But what about in a WDB? Is this phenomenon more or less of an issue? Does the age of a WDB have any bearing on this? How does the different environment affect these chards over time?

In nature everything is ultimately recycled. I would think not so in a WDB. I would think the chards would just dry out and keep breaking into smaller and smaller pieces but never really go anywhere.

 

[frozenborderline]

In nature everything is ultimately recycled. I would think not so in a WDB.

But we are polluting a ton and not giving nature a chance to recycle things , in many cases. So I don't think we should assume indoor stuff is that different from outdoors. There are many outdoor areas with similar pollution levels as indoor ones