This month's fungus honors Albert Einstein's birthday-- but which one should we choose???
by Tom Volk and Adam C. Gusse
Please click TomVolkFungi.net for the rest of Tom Volk's pages on fungi Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Germany. For those of you challenged in math, that's 125 years ago this month. Albert Einstein is, of course, famous for his theories of relativity and other advances in Physics. Einstein and his family moved to Munich six weeks after he was born, and eventually to Switzerland. Despite nearly failing mathematics in grade school, he earned his doctorate degree in Physics and Mathematics in 1905. Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921. According to the Nobel Prize website, Einstein won "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect." In 1933 he renounced his German citizenship and immigrated to America to become Professor of Theoretical Physics at Princeton. in 1940 he became a US citizen. After World War II he was offered the presidency of the newly created state of Israel, which he declined. According to the Nobel prize website: "At the start of his scientific work, Einstein realized the inadequacies of Newtonian mechanics and his theory of special relativity [1905] stemmed from an attempt to reconcile the laws of mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field." His work was the first merger of mechanics and quantum theory. In 1916 he published his theory of general relativity. Einstein later explained relativity: "When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, you think it's only a minute. But when you sit on a hot stove for a minute, you think it's two hours. That's relativity." Einstein said many other interesting things before he died in 1955. There's actually a famous bluegrass song called "Einstein was a genius." The best version of it we found online is at this page. It's a fun song. It's not surprising that it's a bluegrass song, because Einstein loved to play the fiddle and dance around. Looking at the Einstein calendar in my office, we decided to honor a very interesting man on the anniversary of his birth. The problem is, which fungus to choose for this occasion? There were some obvious choices: The brain fungus, Gyromitra esculenta, was the obvious first choice. But since we had already done a page on this false morel, our search continued. What about the yellow brain fungus, Tremella mesenterica, also known as witch's butter? OK we had done that one already too. Darn! That brought to mind the orange brain fungus, Dacrymyces palmatus. We didn't think we could fill up a whole page with that one (although we've done more with less...). Besides April's FotM is going to be a jelly fungus (can you guess which one, in honor of Easter?), so we didn't want to jelly the minds of our readers. How about the brain puffball, Calvatia craniformis? This puffball looks a lot like a brain or a skull, but we already have a Calvatia page, and Calvatia gigantea has already been Fungus of the Month. Calvatia craniformis has also already shown up on the Mycological Easter egg hunt page. What about a fungus that infects the brain? One common one is the yeast Cryptococcus neoformans. It can cause meningitis (infection of the meninges, the lining of the brain) and infect other parts of the brain and spinal cord, especially in immunocompromised people. However we did not think Einstein would have appreciated a brain infection to honor him. While picking our minds further, we stumbled upon another phrenetic fungus, but it was one we could not determine how Einstein would approve. Several Fusarium species produce a group of mycotoxins called fumonisins. These cause a disease called blind staggers or moldy corn disease, that results in a liquefaction of the brain in horses. The technical name is Equine Leukoencephalomalacia (ELEM). The liquefaction leads to signs of frenzy, aimless circling, and hyperexcitability (sounds like some people we know!). This would initially seem a dark subject that Albert would surely not wish to be honored with, but he was known to have a sense of humor, especially when discussing the foolhardy people of the world. We can just imagine him alive today, straining his brain wondering if there are rampant cases of Anthropoleukoencephalomalacia melting the minds of everyone, but then laughing hysterically when he realizes the liquefaction is merely a result of watching too much modern TV. In fact that may be what Einstein was referring to when he said, "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." Well, by this time our brains were feeling a little liquefied, and that was all the brain fungi we could muster up for awhile, but then, aha! What about Smart mushrooms? When one of us (TJV) visited Amsterdam in the Netherlands a few years ago there were many so-called "Smart Shops" that sold hallucinogenic Psilocybe and Amanita muscaria mushrooms, among other things that are supposed to make you smart. We're not quite ready for that yet... We all know that Einstein was a genius. Maybe we could write something about Genius and Species? Or being a genius at identifying species. Hmmmm... that's not quite right... NEXT...! How about a fungus that uses physics? What about Pilobolus crystallinus, the hat thrower? Pilobolus can focus light with its "lens," shooting its spores mass in the direction of the light and away from the dung it's growing in. Well that's probably going to take a lot more than just one page to explain, so we'll defer that one until later. How about Einstein's theories of relativity? Which mushrooms are related to the others? We don't think that's quite what Einstein had in mind. Einstein theorized about general relativity and special relativity. Surely everyone's got some "special" relatives. We're also reminded of the "special" bus we took on the 2003 NAMA foray in Quebéc. OK so we tried to make something out of Einstein's equation E=mc2 --- how could we tie that into Mycology? We came up with several attempts: Edibility = Mushroom connoisseur squared Everything=MyCology squared (because ultimately everything eventually comes down to Mycology...) Perhaps you can come up with something better? We'll post the best ones here. So now it's getting toward the end of the month, and we're getting desperate. hmmmm.... Albert Einstein was known for his distinctive looks. Maybe there's some fungus that looks like Einstein? That's it! There are several examples of mimicry in nature, such as the flower fly looking like the honeybee to appear to its predators less like a delectable truffle chocolate and more like an old prune. Or what about the delicious butterflies that mimic the foul tasting Monarch butterflies? However, never before has an example of mimicry been found with the brilliance of dressing like a physicist. How could a fungus ever realize that by copying the fashions of one of mankind's most recognizable geniuses, it would become an intelligent pathogen itself, or attain infamy through a spot on the FotM page? Spinellus fusiger is the genius of which we speak. A member of the diverse Zygomycota, Spinellus is grouped in the Mucorales with the bread molds. Unlike the group name implies, Spinellus does not find its home on bread, but rather by parasitizing several agarics (mushrooms), mainly Mycena species such as Mycena haematopus. Other species infecting mushrooms include Spinellus chalybeus, S. macrocarpus, and S. gigasporus. They show their true genius by being a pathogen that does not kill its host too quickly, allowing the gilled mushrooms it decays to release their sexual spores (ensuring the existences of new hosts for Spinellus to infect) before digesting the fruiting body to a puddly mess. In addition, Spinellus, named for its "little spines," has thorough time to produce its asexual spores inside sporangia, which stretch from the host to be distributed by wind, water, insects, or animals. This also allows sufficient time for fungophiles tromping in the woods to come across these hairy delights, giving Spinellus fusiger several photographic opportunities to appear in the limelight of the Internet. It may have even fooled the world, when upon first spotting the infected Mycena fruiting bodies a hunter exclaimed, "Mein Gott, I found Einstein's brain! It was under this log the whole time!" We hope you enjoyed this special look at a fungus that mimics a famous physicist. We hope that Albert Einstein would have enjoyed this little tribute to him. We're still talking about him 125 years after his birth and nearly 50 years after his death. Happy Birthday, Albert Einstein! This month's co-author is my grad student Adam Gusse. Adam first did undergraduate research with me, spending a summer of 2002 in Alaska collecting and identifying fungi. He started his MS research last year on Phanerochaete chrysosporium to degrade phenol-based plastics. We expect him to finish his thesis sometime soon, depending on how well the fungus cooperates. If you have anything to add, or if you have corrections, comments, or recommendations for future FotM's (or maybe you'd like to be co-author of a FotM?), please write to me at volk.thom@uwlax.edu This page and other pages are © Copyright 2004 by Thomas J. Volk, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Learn more about fungi! Go to Tom Volk's Fungi Home Page --TomVolkFungi.net Return to Tom Volk's Fungus of the month pages listing
Albert Einstein was born on March 14, 1879 in Ulm, Germany. For those of you challenged in math, that's 125 years ago this month. Albert Einstein is, of course, famous for his theories of relativity and other advances in Physics. Einstein and his family moved to Munich six weeks after he was born, and eventually to Switzerland. Despite nearly failing mathematics in grade school, he earned his doctorate degree in Physics and Mathematics in 1905. Albert Einstein won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1921. According to the Nobel Prize website, Einstein won "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and especially for his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect." In 1933 he renounced his German citizenship and immigrated to America to become Professor of Theoretical Physics at Princeton. in 1940 he became a US citizen. After World War II he was offered the presidency of the newly created state of Israel, which he declined. According to the Nobel prize website: "At the start of his scientific work, Einstein realized the inadequacies of Newtonian mechanics and his theory of special relativity [1905] stemmed from an attempt to reconcile the laws of mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field." His work was the first merger of mechanics and quantum theory. In 1916 he published his theory of general relativity. Einstein later explained relativity: "When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, you think it's only a minute. But when you sit on a hot stove for a minute, you think it's two hours. That's relativity." Einstein said many other interesting things before he died in 1955. There's actually a famous bluegrass song called "Einstein was a genius." The best version of it we found online is at this page. It's a fun song. It's not surprising that it's a bluegrass song, because Einstein loved to play the fiddle and dance around. Looking at the Einstein calendar in my office, we decided to honor a very interesting man on the anniversary of his birth. The problem is, which fungus to choose for this occasion? There were some obvious choices: The brain fungus, Gyromitra esculenta, was the obvious first choice. But since we had already done a page on this false morel, our search continued. What about the yellow brain fungus, Tremella mesenterica, also known as witch's butter? OK we had done that one already too. Darn! That brought to mind the orange brain fungus, Dacrymyces palmatus. We didn't think we could fill up a whole page with that one (although we've done more with less...). Besides April's FotM is going to be a jelly fungus (can you guess which one, in honor of Easter?), so we didn't want to jelly the minds of our readers. How about the brain puffball, Calvatia craniformis? This puffball looks a lot like a brain or a skull, but we already have a Calvatia page, and Calvatia gigantea has already been Fungus of the Month. Calvatia craniformis has also already shown up on the Mycological Easter egg hunt page. What about a fungus that infects the brain? One common one is the yeast Cryptococcus neoformans. It can cause meningitis (infection of the meninges, the lining of the brain) and infect other parts of the brain and spinal cord, especially in immunocompromised people. However we did not think Einstein would have appreciated a brain infection to honor him. While picking our minds further, we stumbled upon another phrenetic fungus, but it was one we could not determine how Einstein would approve. Several Fusarium species produce a group of mycotoxins called fumonisins. These cause a disease called blind staggers or moldy corn disease, that results in a liquefaction of the brain in horses. The technical name is Equine Leukoencephalomalacia (ELEM). The liquefaction leads to signs of frenzy, aimless circling, and hyperexcitability (sounds like some people we know!). This would initially seem a dark subject that Albert would surely not wish to be honored with, but he was known to have a sense of humor, especially when discussing the foolhardy people of the world. We can just imagine him alive today, straining his brain wondering if there are rampant cases of Anthropoleukoencephalomalacia melting the minds of everyone, but then laughing hysterically when he realizes the liquefaction is merely a result of watching too much modern TV. In fact that may be what Einstein was referring to when he said, "Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe." Well, by this time our brains were feeling a little liquefied, and that was all the brain fungi we could muster up for awhile, but then, aha! What about Smart mushrooms? When one of us (TJV) visited Amsterdam in the Netherlands a few years ago there were many so-called "Smart Shops" that sold hallucinogenic Psilocybe and Amanita muscaria mushrooms, among other things that are supposed to make you smart. We're not quite ready for that yet... We all know that Einstein was a genius. Maybe we could write something about Genius and Species? Or being a genius at identifying species. Hmmmm... that's not quite right... NEXT...! How about a fungus that uses physics? What about Pilobolus crystallinus, the hat thrower? Pilobolus can focus light with its "lens," shooting its spores mass in the direction of the light and away from the dung it's growing in. Well that's probably going to take a lot more than just one page to explain, so we'll defer that one until later. How about Einstein's theories of relativity? Which mushrooms are related to the others? We don't think that's quite what Einstein had in mind. Einstein theorized about general relativity and special relativity. Surely everyone's got some "special" relatives. We're also reminded of the "special" bus we took on the 2003 NAMA foray in Quebéc. OK so we tried to make something out of Einstein's equation E=mc2 --- how could we tie that into Mycology? We came up with several attempts: Edibility = Mushroom connoisseur squared Everything=MyCology squared (because ultimately everything eventually comes down to Mycology...) Perhaps you can come up with something better? We'll post the best ones here. So now it's getting toward the end of the month, and we're getting desperate. hmmmm.... Albert Einstein was known for his distinctive looks. Maybe there's some fungus that looks like Einstein? That's it! There are several examples of mimicry in nature, such as the flower fly looking like the honeybee to appear to its predators less like a delectable truffle chocolate and more like an old prune. Or what about the delicious butterflies that mimic the foul tasting Monarch butterflies? However, never before has an example of mimicry been found with the brilliance of dressing like a physicist. How could a fungus ever realize that by copying the fashions of one of mankind's most recognizable geniuses, it would become an intelligent pathogen itself, or attain infamy through a spot on the FotM page? Spinellus fusiger is the genius of which we speak. A member of the diverse Zygomycota, Spinellus is grouped in the Mucorales with the bread molds. Unlike the group name implies, Spinellus does not find its home on bread, but rather by parasitizing several agarics (mushrooms), mainly Mycena species such as Mycena haematopus. Other species infecting mushrooms include Spinellus chalybeus, S. macrocarpus, and S. gigasporus. They show their true genius by being a pathogen that does not kill its host too quickly, allowing the gilled mushrooms it decays to release their sexual spores (ensuring the existences of new hosts for Spinellus to infect) before digesting the fruiting body to a puddly mess. In addition, Spinellus, named for its "little spines," has thorough time to produce its asexual spores inside sporangia, which stretch from the host to be distributed by wind, water, insects, or animals. This also allows sufficient time for fungophiles tromping in the woods to come across these hairy delights, giving Spinellus fusiger several photographic opportunities to appear in the limelight of the Internet. It may have even fooled the world, when upon first spotting the infected Mycena fruiting bodies a hunter exclaimed, "Mein Gott, I found Einstein's brain! It was under this log the whole time!" We hope you enjoyed this special look at a fungus that mimics a famous physicist. We hope that Albert Einstein would have enjoyed this little tribute to him. We're still talking about him 125 years after his birth and nearly 50 years after his death. Happy Birthday, Albert Einstein! This month's co-author is my grad student Adam Gusse. Adam first did undergraduate research with me, spending a summer of 2002 in Alaska collecting and identifying fungi. He started his MS research last year on Phanerochaete chrysosporium to degrade phenol-based plastics. We expect him to finish his thesis sometime soon, depending on how well the fungus cooperates. If you have anything to add, or if you have corrections, comments, or recommendations for future FotM's (or maybe you'd like to be co-author of a FotM?), please write to me at volk.thom@uwlax.edu This page and other pages are © Copyright 2004 by Thomas J. Volk, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Learn more about fungi! Go to Tom Volk's Fungi Home Page --TomVolkFungi.net Return to Tom Volk's Fungus of the month pages listing
According to the Nobel prize website: "At the start of his scientific work, Einstein realized the inadequacies of Newtonian mechanics and his theory of special relativity [1905] stemmed from an attempt to reconcile the laws of mechanics with the laws of the electromagnetic field." His work was the first merger of mechanics and quantum theory. In 1916 he published his theory of general relativity. Einstein later explained relativity:
"When you sit with a nice girl for two hours, you think it's only a minute. But when you sit on a hot stove for a minute, you think it's two hours. That's relativity."
Einstein said many other interesting things before he died in 1955.
There's actually a famous bluegrass song called "Einstein was a genius." The best version of it we found online is at this page. It's a fun song. It's not surprising that it's a bluegrass song, because Einstein loved to play the fiddle and dance around.
Looking at the Einstein calendar in my office, we decided to honor a very interesting man on the anniversary of his birth. The problem is, which fungus to choose for this occasion?
There were some obvious choices:
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe."
Edibility = Mushroom connoisseur squared
Everything=MyCology squared (because ultimately everything eventually comes down to Mycology...)
Perhaps you can come up with something better? We'll post the best ones here.
So now it's getting toward the end of the month, and we're getting desperate.
hmmmm.... Albert Einstein was known for his distinctive looks. Maybe there's some fungus that looks like Einstein? That's it!
There are several examples of mimicry in nature, such as the flower fly looking like the honeybee to appear to its predators less like a delectable truffle chocolate and more like an old prune. Or what about the delicious butterflies that mimic the foul tasting Monarch butterflies? However, never before has an example of mimicry been found with the brilliance of dressing like a physicist. How could a fungus ever realize that by copying the fashions of one of mankind's most recognizable geniuses, it would become an intelligent pathogen itself, or attain infamy through a spot on the FotM page? Spinellus fusiger is the genius of which we speak.
A member of the diverse Zygomycota, Spinellus is grouped in the Mucorales with the bread molds. Unlike the group name implies, Spinellus does not find its home on bread, but rather by parasitizing several agarics (mushrooms), mainly Mycena species such as Mycena haematopus. Other species infecting mushrooms include Spinellus chalybeus, S. macrocarpus, and S. gigasporus. They show their true genius by being a pathogen that does not kill its host too quickly, allowing the gilled mushrooms it decays to release their sexual spores (ensuring the existences of new hosts for Spinellus to infect) before digesting the fruiting body to a puddly mess. In addition, Spinellus, named for its "little spines," has thorough time to produce its asexual spores inside sporangia, which stretch from the host to be distributed by wind, water, insects, or animals. This also allows sufficient time for fungophiles tromping in the woods to come across these hairy delights, giving Spinellus fusiger several photographic opportunities to appear in the limelight of the Internet. It may have even fooled the world, when upon first spotting the infected Mycena fruiting bodies a hunter exclaimed, "Mein Gott, I found Einstein's brain! It was under this log the whole time!"
We hope you enjoyed this special look at a fungus that mimics a famous physicist. We hope that Albert Einstein would have enjoyed this little tribute to him. We're still talking about him 125 years after his birth and nearly 50 years after his death. Happy Birthday, Albert Einstein!
Learn more about fungi! Go to Tom Volk's Fungi Home Page --TomVolkFungi.net
Return to Tom Volk's Fungus of the month pages listing