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To leave Commie, hyper to
http://commie.oy.com/commie_leaving.html
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The Andromeda Strain ?
A new fungus that eats plastics and metals and
destroys the basis of our technological civilisation ?
If it only ate silicon chips, that would be cool,
we'd end up like "Dune", where robots are outlawed
and specialised humans do the number-crunching.
If the fungi drifted down to Earth when Mir came
down, then winds should have taken them to South
America already. Has anyone seen any interesting
news stories about dissolving materials ? Japi
tracks the UFO newsletter. right ?
======== The Scout Report for Science & Engineering ==
======== March 14, 2001 ====
======== Volume 4, Number 14 ======
====== Current Awareness ====
18. "Mutant Fungus from Space"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/monitoring/media_reports/newsid_1209000/1209034.stm
Space expert Yuri Karash of Russia says that he anticipates that
the Mir Space Station could bring virulent new strains of fungus
to earth when it splashes down later this month. Various types of
fungus, whose smell is the first thing visitors to Mir notice, grow
behind panels and in air-conditioning units on the spacecraft and
have likely mutated. This article from the BBC News online covers
the story. [HCS]
The mutant fungi do exist and in future they could do serious
damage to humanity. We can only draw the final conclusions after
we have completed our research."
Over the years, visitors to Mir have consistently said the biggest
impression on reaching the station was the smell.
Mir is likely to splash down in waters which are New Zealand's
responsibility.
Prime Minister Helen Clark has reassured the nation that there was
no radiation or biological hazard on board.
But that was before the latest revelation about mutant fungi - in
effect an unknown form of life whose likely impact is simply unknown.
Scientists have been worried about contamination from space before.
Quarantine was a routine precaution for early astronauts.
Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, had to fill in an agri-
culture, customs, immigration and public health declaration on his
return to the United States.
In the section about conditions on board Apollo 11 which might lead
to the spread of disease, the astronauts wrote "To Be Determined".
