Amazon Fungus Breaks Down Polyurethane - Plastic Eating Mushroom!

Because we don't think about future generations, they will never forget us.
~Henrik Tikkanen

Pestalotiopsis microspora, a fungus discovered by Yale students in the Ecuadoran jungle, can eat and survive on plastic. This is the first fungus ever found to be able to live on plastic alone in an anaerobic environment. Plastic has been filling landfills for decades without meaningful biodegradation. Perhaps the newly discovered fungus is the answer to this dilemma.



The students have published their findings on the fungus and the decomposition of plastics. The research provides hope that the fungi might be able to live and thrive at the oxygen deprived bottom of plastic filled trash heaps.

Abstract of the students published findings.

Note: Plastics can take centuries to decompose.

Something else I learned: Roseanne Barr hopes to be the Green Party presidential nominee.

Mosquitoes Love the Way You Smell!

The billions of microscopic critters that cloak your skin are a bit like fashionable threads—the ones you're wearing today may be out by next season.
~Ben Harder

A recent study found that mosquitoes are drawn by the scent of bacteria on our skin. Bacterial microbes on human skin have a plethora of variations. This explains why some people seem like mosquito bait, while others shrug carelessly and smugly say, "Really? They aren't bothering me."

There are a couple of hundred microbes present on human skin at any given time. Over 1K unique nonhuman DNA have been identified on a random sampling of volunteers skin. There is a large amount of variation in each individuals sample - not eveyone has the same set of microbes, and the types on each individual can vary from samples taken at different times.

Every person seems to carry a signature microbe habitat.  Although some of the microbe colonies may be long term (perhaps permanant), others seem to come and go. Soap or laundry detergent can effect the type of microbes present, as can fabric of the clothes we wear. And the microbes, it seems, affect body odor.


Mosquitoes prefer to bite those with the odor of abundant bacterial communities, but with less diversity. There is also the possibility that some microbe colonies produce an odor that repels mosquitoes. Further research into the microbes on human skin must be conducted to answer that question.

The full study is available here.

Note: I would like to know more about the microbe colonies on skin, why they are there, what purpose they may be performing, etc, before the latest mosquito repellant containing the right microbes and eliminating the wrong ones hits the shelves.

Something else I learned: Pillows are gross.