Intergalactic Spores

[Boerseun]

I suppose the question isn't so much can fungi survive impact, but rather, can fungi survive the ejection from the home planet?

 

I should think that if it could survive both impact and ejection, the deep frozen vacuum of outer space is quite survivable for these little suckers.

 

Longevity is quite another matter. Ejecta from Mars can take anywhere from a few months to thousands of years to orbit towards Earth, depending on the angle and energy of the original impact. But if the spores are deep-frozen, they can probably still be viable after a couple of thousands of years, not?

[Greg]

do you mean fungi left another planet on a meteor and landed on earth.. if so then thats an excellent scenario

[Eclogite]

This Scientific American article addresses some of the points raised here:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/print_version.cfm?articleID=00073A97-5745-1359-94FF83414B7F0000

 

A couple of pertinent extracts:

Simulations of asteroid or comet impacts on Mars indicate that materials can be launched into a wide variety of orbits. Gladman and his colleagues have estimated that every few million years Mars undergoes an impact powerful enough to eject rocks that could eventually reach Earth.

Recent laboratory impact experiments have found that certain strains of bacteria can survive the accelerations and jerks (rates of changes of acceleration) that would be encountered during a typical high-pressure ejection from Mars

By studying the magnetic properties of the meteorites and the composition of the gases trapped within them, Weiss and his collaborators found that ALH84001 and at least two of the seven nakhlites discovered so far were not heated more than a few hundred degrees Celsius since they were part of the Martian surface.

[Boerseun]

Well there you go, then...

[Turtle]

could it be that this strange mushroom fungi was dispersed from another planet?

 

...

maybe they could have been lodged inside of a meteor, unharmed as it fiercefully rocketed towards the ground burning and smashed into the earth.

 

meh, what do you guys think about all of this?

 

Well nows Orby, it seems the answer is maybe & that they don't need to get around on smashing meteors.:eek2: :hihi:

 

 

http://www.newscientistspace.com/article/dn9601

Dehel calculated the effect of electric fields at various levels in the atmosphere on a bacterium that was carrying an electric charge. He showed that such bacteria could easily be ejected from the Earth's gravitational field by the same kind of electromagnetic fields that generate auroras. And these fields occur every day, unlike the extraordinarily large surface impacts needed to eject interplanetary meteorites.

:doh: :Alien: :Alien: :Alien: :Alien: :Alien:

[Glotesqyphon]

could it be that this strange mushroom fungi was dispersed from another planet?

 

and it just so happened to land right here, in a nice meadow

for an underevolved, curious primate looks down at some dung

and notices a small psilocybe umbrella...

BINGO!

a light goes on. (conciousness)

 

yes yes i know, far-fetched theory. my main question is this:

 

is it possible that mushrooms spores can travel through outerspace undamaged?

 

and even if they could, how would get get through earths atmosphere without burning to a crisp?

 

maybe they could have been lodged inside of a meteor, unharmed as it fiercefully rocketed towards the ground burning and smashed into the earth.

 

meh, what do you guys think about all of this?

 

I do think it is possible for spores to survive outer space, but the question is, how long? Perhaps the vacuum out there could preserve the spores' potency for billions of years, since their husks are so dense.

 

Also, being microscopic, they might be able to enter the ozone layer unharmed. I seem to recall reading somewhere that objects can penetrate the atmosphere virtually unharmed as long as they descend very slowly. Since spores weigh next to nothing, is this not a possibility? Not only that, but what if they could just float right out into space WITHOUT an impact to help them eject? Does anyone know about spore presence in the upper atmosphere?

:)

 

So, Orbsycli, I'll just bet that you're a reader of Terence McKenna. Are you interested in Ethnomycology? Do you think that maybe the mushrooms came here with an agenda, or they were sent by beings with one?

 

It is my understanding that our ancestors who came upon these things and gobbled them up weren't turned on to conciousness, but that their conciousness was altered to be tuned in to the "Logos."

 

Religious mythology around the world contains references to psychotropic shrooms, and I suggest you search out everything you can find in regards to the classical idea of Logos.

 

You might start by reading the introduction to the Gospel of John, ("In the beginning was the Logos...") the first chapter of the Corpus Hermeticum, called "The Vision of Poemandres," and the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas. My take on this is that there is an intelligent force out there "sowing the seeds of the kingdom" wherever there is a deficient level of dimensional perception.

 

Not too scientific, yes, at least in the orthodox sense. But I regard religious texts to be good record-keeping.

 

I've got a book on this subject in the works, and any scientific input that can be given on anything I've said will be greatly appreciated, whether you agree or not with what I am suggesting.

[Turtle]

...? Not only that, but what if they could just float right out into space WITHOUT an impact to help them eject? Does anyone know about spore presence in the upper atmosphere?...

:)

 

welcome aboard Glot. in my post just before yours i gave reference to this question. >>

Well nows Orby, it seems the answer is maybe & that they don't need to get around on smashing meteors.

 

Electromagnetic space travel for bugs? - space - 21 July 2006 - New Scientist Space

 

Dehel calculated the effect of electric fields at various levels in the atmosphere on a bacterium that was carrying an electric charge. He showed that such bacteria could easily be ejected from the Earth's gravitational field by the same kind of electromagnetic fields that generate auroras. And these fields occur every day, unlike the extraordinarily large surface impacts needed to eject interplanetary meteorites.

 

onward & upward. :)

[mjodvis]

The following is from a UCBerkeley website whose link I can't post yet because I don't have enough posts under my belt.

 

The oldest fossil fungi so far known are probably chytrid-like forms from the Vendian Period (Late Precambrian), found in north Russia. Older fossils of Precambrian "fungi" are now usually considered to be empty sheaths of filamentous cyanobacteria, or else are not distinct enough to be placed in any taxon with certainty. Fossil fungi older than the Devonian are rare; the fungi may have undergone an evolutionary radiation at about the same time that the land plants began to radiate.

 

For those such as myself who don't/didn't know when the Vendian Period was, apparently it was from 650 to 543 million years ago. What I'm still trying to figure out is if fungi evolved out of a simpler lifeform (e.g., cyanobacteria) or if they sort of showed up in the fossil record at an already high level of development. It's been awhile, but I seem to remember that McKenna claimed that the latter option was the case though I don't know his factual backing for this.

 

Fungi seem to be such an integral part of our planetary ecosystem that it's hard to imagine how biological processes might have looked before an interstellar appearance by them. I suppose that some sort of bacteria might have evolved to perform the services (biological, not necessarily the entheogenic ones:eek_big: ) currently performed by fungi. The same link above mentioned that fungi appear in the fossil record somewhat before vascular plants. I wonder if this is coincidental or if the arrival and/or evolution of fungi somehow allowed vascular plants to evolve. Vascular plants and fungi often do form symbiotic relationships after all.

 

Can anyone shed any light on what simpler organisms fungi may have evolved out of if they weren't extraterrestrial?

[jungjedi]

http://www.karunabooks.net/library/the_bee_men_of_tassili.pdf

enjoy!

[Glotesqyphon]

enjoy!

 

Freaking splendid, man!

[Glotesqyphon]

 

 

Christianity was originally a Mystery Cult. The figure known as Jesus was an anthropomorphism of of the most holy sacrament known at the time, the hallucinogenic mushroom.

 

Gnostic Media

The Lost Word

 

(I'll point out that I don't agree with everything on those links. They're just there because I'm too sleepy to expound much on this stuff)

 

Early gnostics would engage in orgiastic love feasts, during which the ejaculate of the males would be held aloft and worshiped as an incarnation of Christ himself. :hyper: My notion is that they somehow understood the interstellar migration and the semen was symbolic of the spores. There's waayyy more to it than just that, though.

 

20) The disciples said to Jesus, "Tell us what the Kingdom of

Heaven is like."

He said to them, "It is like a mustard seed, the smallest of

all seeds. But when it falls on tilled soil, it produces a great

plant and becomes a shelter for birds of the sky."

 

-The Gospel of Thomas

 

 

The mustard seed is the spore. The tree is the Kingdom of heaven, which must have a spiritual ground to take root in. The birds of the sky are the intelligences which manifest and participate within the framework of a collective Mind. The mushroom is the catalyst for all of this.

 

I am completely aware of how ludicrous this must sound, BTW!

 

Perhaps this should have its own thread in the Religion forum. I'll get on that tomorrow...

/forums/images/smilies/banana_sign.gif

[Queso]

doesn't surprise me at all . .