Someone may think this a serious problem, but i thought
it was funny. enjoy...
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Source: Reuters
"Tuesday March 6, 02001 9:32 AM ET
"Mutant Bacteria Next Threat From Russia's Mir
"MOSCOW (Reuters) == Forget the danger of heavy-weight
debris raining down from space when Russia sends the Mir
orbiter to a watery grave this month == the real threat
could be mutant fungi, a researcher said Tuesday.
"Yuri Karash, an expert on the Russian space program, said
there was a possibility that micro-organisms, which have
spent the last 15 years mutating in isolation aboard Mir,
could present a threat if they survived the fall to Earth.
"'I wouldn't overstate it ... but a realistic problem
exists,' Karash told a news conference."
"Karash, who has undergone cosmonaut training and is an
aerospace advisor, said his conclusions were based on
research carried out by Russia's Institute of Medical and
Biological Problems.
"Researchers have said that the fungi could be especially
virulent if mixed with earth varieties that attack metal,
glass and plastic. (((It'd be quite the page-one story if
a fungus returned from space and physically devoured
industrial civilization.)))
"Western health officials have in the past expressed
concerns about micro-organisms that could be brought back
to earth after a Russian microbiologist 13 years ago
discovered the first of many aggressive forms of fungi
inhabiting Mir.
"Russian space officials have played down the threat, but
visitors to the orbiter have found numerous types of fungi
behind control panels, in air-conditioning units and on
dozens of other surfaces." (((Wonderfully reminiscent of
the Japanese camp sci-fi classic MATANGO, FUNGUS OF
TERROR. They don't just *live* in the dead space station
== they're *decomposing* it.)))
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jeff (cold rain here, but i'm busy seeding hundreds of spring
flowers)
