Word: fungi
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...blandness of their days and allow them to escape, at least for a few hours, their part-time jobs, trade-school classes and cramped apartments. The vehicle they believe will help them achieve this temporary expansion of their consciousness: majikku masshurumu?magic mushrooms?shriveled bits of psilocybin-filled fungi that will first make them a little nauseous and then incredibly stoned, their world melting into a visual cacophony of whirls, polka-dots and pixels...
They're the smallest of stowaways, hitching rides on freighters, cruise ships and planes and usually disembarking undetected. They're invasive species, including insects, fish, fungi and plants. Their variety, and the damage they inflict on local species and crops, is growing apace with the doubling in U.S. foreign trade over the past decade. In the U.S., they cause upwards of $100 billion in economic losses annually, according to Cornell researcher David Pimentel. Among recent invaders is giant salvinia, a freshwater weed infesting lakes and waterways in the South and West. The Asian long-horn beetle, pictured at right...
However, as anyone who has wrestled with a persistent case of athlete's foot knows, it's not easy to root out a fungus once it's taken hold. Part of the problem is that fungi are complex organisms that have more in common with human cells than with bacteria or viruses; medications that are toxic to fungi are often just as toxic to humans...
...real hopes for the long term are pinned to molecular biologists; they are best equipped to identify targets unique to fungi and to design drugs that will attack them and them alone. Tiny biotech companies and huge pharmaceutical firms alike are working on drugs that will kill off fungi by preventing enzymes from binding to DNA or by halting protein synthesis...
...good news about fungi is that they are relatively stable. As recalcitrant as they are, they don't morph rapidly like bacteria into superstrains that are resistant to drug therapy. So once someone figures out how to control fungi, chances are they will remain at bay for a long time...