CD Eating Fungus?

From: Marvin <marvin_at_rain.org>
Date: Mon Jun 18 19:45:27 2001

A friend of mine sent this to me, but I don't know if it is valid or a hoax.

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Victor Cardenes, of Spain's leading scientific research body, stumbled
across
the microscopic creature two years ago, while visiting Belize. Friends
complained that in the hot and sticky Central American climate, a CD had
stopped working and had developed an odd discoloration that left parts of it
virtually transparent.
Dr Cardenes and colleagues at the Superior Council for Scientific Research
in
Madrid discovered a fungus was steadily eating through the supposedly
indestructible disc. The fungus had burrowed into the CD from the outer
edge,
then devoured the thin aluminium layer and some of the data-storing
polycarbonate resin.
Dr Cardenes said: "It completely destroys the aluminium. It leaves nothing
behind." Biologists at the council had never seen this fungus, but concluded
that it belonged to a common genus called geotrichum.
Philips, the Dutch electronics company that invented the compact disc, said
it believed the Belize case was probably a freak incident caused by extreme
weather conditions.
Received on Mon Jun 18 2001 - 19:45:27 BST