Word: fungi
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From Scab to Smut. The war against wheat rust is at least as old as the ancient Egyptians. For 700 years the Romans propitiated a special god of stem rust, Robigo. But Elvin Stakman was one of the first to plumb the secrets of plant fungi growth. He discovered that every fungus contains a number of parasitic strains, and that a single fungus cell may produce thousands of varieties which look alike but differ in their plant tastes...
...Sterilizing lamps. Already used in air conditioning and to sterilize dishes, these lamps will soon be available in small sizes with many new uses: on toothbrush racks they will keep the brushes germfree; in shoe trees they will kill fungi, prevent athlete's foot...
According to tests made on the fluid, it will neither harm the strength or structure of the wood, while it prevents fungi, takes a coat of paint readily, and has many other distinct advantages over all other kinds which have been invented to date. In tests made with incendiary bombs, the wood remained intact while untreated wood was completely destroyed in a few minutes...
...combat athlete's foot (dermatophytosis)-the itch caused by the toe-burrowing fungi dermatophytes which infest locker rooms and swimming pools-there are at least a hundred bland salves and powders on the market. Favorites: boric acid and sulfur powders, salves of salicylic acid and benzoic acid mixed with vaseline; an ether-collodion mixture. These generally clear up the mild, itching cases which annoy millions of people...
These help to control the disease. But there is no practical cure for athlete's foot on the market. Often the infection will disappear of itself if left alone. Sometimes it will show up again from a new exposure. For the fungi are so widespread that to eradicate the disease it would be necessary, according to one doctor, "to sterilize the whole world...