This story claims that a fungus that eats CDs has appeared in Central America?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1402000/1402533.stm
Is this for real? Will this spread to other areas? Will we have to go back to vinyl 45s? I find it hard to believe that an organism could feast on a CD? Can we at least selectively breed them to prefer the taste of Britney Spears CDs over my prized collection of Beatles, REM, and yes…Wierd ALl Yankovic hits? I live just a mile north of Mexico, so I am barely 1,300 miles from this raging epidemic of phonophagic hordes!
and…will I only speak in questions?
With thanks to my colleagues in AMIA (special thanks to Jacobo López Pavillard and José Llufrío), I can confirm that this is absolutely legit. Llufrío, a technical advisor at the Cuban Film Institute says:
“Have seen such CDs in Cuba, only I had no means for investigating the ultimate cause. The aluminium reflecting surface shows irregular furrows, like those caused by mites (microscopic insects) inside green leaves of infected plants. The CDs in this case had been rather harshly mistreated (banged against tables and hard floors by the edges) and left unattended in a humid place (although rather normal for this climate). We thought it was some sort of corrosion, like the one you get under a low quality chrome plated steel.”
There is a more information at this link, in Spanish, about the discovery made by geologist Víctor Cárdenes of the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Also, here’s an article from Periódico El Mundo (14 de junio de 2001) that also covers the story. Sorry there’s no translation–it’s a bit beyond my Spanish abilities.
It is reasonable to speculate that the severe temperature and humidity problems in that part of the world (not to mention some probable neglect) played an important factor in this development, so I think you’ll probably be OK if you look out for your collection and keep it in a more temperate location. Still, what was once claimed to be “impervious” to deterioration or “indestructible” to the passage of time is now just another media with its own set of preservation concerns. I’ll keep everyone posted if I hear anything else.
If we could just get the fungus to prefer the taste of Kenny G and Kathie Lee Gifford music, I’d see a Nobel Prize winner.
Your links don’t work, for some reason.
Basically the article says that a group of Spanish geologists have found a fungus that, in conditions of high heat and humidity, feeds on the carbon and nitrogen in the plastic layer of the CD destroying the information etched in the aluminum layer of the disk. This discovery has alarmed banks, government ministries and universities that keep info. in this format. This is a common fungus that’s found all over the world, but only climate conditions like those found in Belize (30 degrees C and 90% humidity) cause this aggressive form to grow. When they took the CDs to Madrid, the process was interrupted because the weather is dry there, and the fungus ceased to be so aggressive. So it’s important to protect your CDs from humidity/heat. Until now, the scientific dogma held that CDs were impervious to destruction by any kind of organism, and, according to García-Guinea, the journal “Nature” hasn’t wanted to publish the investigation because this goes against what everyone believes and what is sold all over the world.
(which I see now is about the same as what you said in your translation. - Jill)
[Edited by JillGat on 06-22-2001 at 08:38 PM]
I hate to say this but I am highly skeptical… Dunno… Reminds me when manufacturers started making boats of fiberglass-reinforced-resins instead of wood and stories started coming out about worms which would eat that just like wood. Of course it was not true but I wonder how many people decided to stick to wood because of that.
Then again, this may be true but I need more convincing…
The correct links should be Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas and El Mundo but those are the home pages, not where that info may be. I’d like to see the pages… I am skeptical… this sounds like a joke.
Sorry about the links. Try this: http://www.el-mundo.es and http://www.csic.es
Ok, I found the article in El Mundo. It says the fungus Geotrichum can do this in an atmosphere of high temperature and humidity like he found in Belize. … Well, who knows… maybe it is true… Where are the fungi experts? (I am just a fun guy, haha)…
Sorry about the simulpost–sailor’s just a beat ahead of me twice (found the link to the article–sorry I didn’t include it earlier)
Here a couple of other links on Geotrichum:
http://www.doctorfungus.org/thefungi/Geotrichum.htm (the basics)
http://www.worldmedicus.com/servlet/Controller/$7004002316d80000.sj_viewd/ (more than anyone probably needs to know, though the scientifically inclined may be able to narrow down the particular strand we’re discussing)