Viridian Note 00250: Bacterial Dataphage

Key concepts: resin, compact disks, microbes, geotrichum,
Viridian Embrace Decay principle, Big Mike the Viridian Bug

Attention Conservation Notice: It was already on Slashdot, but it's way too Viridian to let it pass.

Links: A hand-powered wind-up Linux webserver.
It's powered by a Freeplay radio. http://www.uclinux.com/hand-powered_web_server/index.html Solar powered robot jellyfish tub toys: http://www.worldshopdirect.com/ToyE/aquaroid-2.htm The much-remarked-upon webbed toaster that forecasts the weather: http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/2/19442.html

Entries in the Viridian Hot Rod Contest:

http://www.digitalanything.com/LightRod.html http://www.revjack.net/usenet/ark/gallery/981655811.html http://www.ulster.net/~alamut/spud/spudracer.html http://www.powerbase-alpha.com/bigmike/hotrod.html

This contest ends July 5, 02001.

Source: The Telegraph, UK
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/et?ac=001851641145319&rtmo=lzFklAlt&atmo=rrrrrrrq&pg=/et/01/6/18/wfung18.html

ISSUE 2215 Monday 18 June 2001

"Scientist finds fungus that eats through compact discs By Robert Uhlig, Technology Correspondent

"FIRST there was the computer virus. Now scientists have found a fungus that eats compact discs.

    "Victor Cardenes, of Spain's leading scientific research body, stumbled across the microscopic creature two years ago, while visiting Belize. Friends complained that in the hot and sticky Central American climate, a CD had stopped working and had developed an odd discoloration that left parts of it virtually transparent.

    "Dr Cardenes and colleagues at the Superior Council for Scientific Research in Madrid discovered a fungus was steadily eating through the supposedly indestructible disc. The fungus had burrowed into the CD from the outer edge, then devoured the thin aluminium layer and some of the data-storing polycarbonate resin.

    "Dr Cardenes said: 'It completely destroys the aluminium. It leaves nothing behind.' Biologists at the council had never seen this fungus, but concluded that it belonged to a common genus called geotrichum.

    "Philips, the Dutch electronics company that invented the compact disc, said it believed the Belize case was probably a freak incident caused by extreme weather conditions." (((As is only too common in climate coverage, the lede paragraph is buried at the end of the story.)))