Pilobolus: Ultra-High-Speed Fungus Spore Discharge

[vibhupande]

1:00 there's the most perfect launch that i've ever seen

[powerrangersr]

how fast can it go?

[Mysticsloth]

I think It came.

[PandaBoosh]

THIS PLACE ABOUT TO BLO-O-O-O-O-O-OW-OW!!

[Stikmentor]

Hello fellow uni people!

[Fourteen88SoCal]

....why was this in my "recommended for you" videos!? lol

[madpinkyfox]

found the link to this vid on page 28 of Answers Magazine April-June 2010 issue.

Really spectacular. You botanists are awesome.

[caguppy123]

the needles on the stingers of a kind of jelly fish are really the fastest things in nature. they are so fast they defy gravity 10x.... lol i was shocked but discovery channel don't lie

[hayleyscomet]

I don't know about jellyfish stingers, but there are a few different ways to measure "speed." For the launch of fungal spores like these, the measure of acceleration is faster than anything previously recorded.

[danielodors]

Why did you put quotation marks on "speed".

[hayleyscomet]

To emphasize that there are many ways to define it. You can look at strict velocity (distance per time), or acceleration (as we did here). You can look at speed on land or in the air or underwater. That is why you sometimes hear of multiple organisms holding the title of "fastest thing in nature"--because it depends on what specifically you are looking at.

[Stikmentor]

@caguppy123

I can jump so fast I defy gravity (albeit momentarily) lol.

[satweavers]

How many miles of film did they have to burn waiting for one spore to launch? This is amazing footage.

Pilobolus... "The Fungus Is Among Us".

Now I get it.

[hayleyscomet]

Thankfully, the camera was digital and hooked up to a computer. Even still, at that frame speed, the memory could only retain about two seconds worth of footage--so you had to be really quick on the draw to stop recording as soon as the spore had launched, or it would be lost.

[satweavers]

Amazing.

I just searched. You used the Photron camera?

Was the capture all about controlling some infinitesimal change of environment that triggered the launch and then making it happen? Something like that?

[hayleyscomet]

We spent quite some time playing with lights and laser pointers, trying to figure out a trigger. We had almost given up when we made a pretty simple observation--that the sporangium LOOKED different when it was about ready to launch. So it was a matter of finding one that looked ready (there was a characteristic band just below the bulb that was missing in the immature sporangia), getting it in position.... and then a lot of sitting and waiting and watching.

[RockLobsta23]

:52 is awesome because one drop just sits there.

[unnameuserble]

good timing and soundtrack choice

[kree777]

ahhh

the wonder of nature!

[eleonorluwz]

Excellent! and music its quite perfect...

[shakmooll]

ALL HAIL COMRADE FUNGUS!

[TucanaTheToucan]

XD

Truth is ten times stranger than fiction!

[ianb4music]

Excellent! Heard about this on the Naked Scientists podcast and had to check it out. Nice music too!

[vuzh]

BEAUTIFUL!!! BRILLIANT!!!

[shakmooll]

HUZZAH! HUZZAH!

[btbking]

Simply brilliant.

[axmendez]

Amazing! Good work in your paper.