Mold is one of the oldest living organisms on Earth. It appeared 200 million years ago and learned to survive in any conditions: in radiation, Arctic ice and open space. She saves lives and is capable of killing.
Smart mold
Remember the old experiment where a rat must find the right path in a maze to get food. So, as the Japanese scientist Toshuki Nakagaki found out, mold copes with this task just as well. In 2000, he carried out an experiment by placing a mold "Physarum polycephalum" at the entrance to the labyrinth, and a piece of sugar at the exit.
The mold immediately sprouted in the direction of sugar, the spores of the fungus filled the entire space in the labyrinth, bifurcating at every intersection. As soon as any of the processes hit a dead end, he turned back and looked for a way in the other direction. It took the microscopic mushroom only 4 hours to fill all the paths of the labyrinth and find the right path to sugar.
But, what is most interesting, when a piece of mushroom mycelium that had already passed through the labyrinth was pinched off and put back at the entrance to the labyrinth, putting sugar at the end, one of the sprouts unmistakably chose the shortest path to the exit from the labyrinth and sugar, and the second simply "climbed" along the walls of the labyrinth and crawled along the ceiling. Thus, simple mold revealed not only the rudiments of memory, but also the ability to non-standard way of solving problems, which indicates that the fungus has intelligence.
Dangerous mold
Mold accompanies us everywhere, it lives in huge colonies in bathrooms, apartments, ventilation shafts, and most unpleasantly, in our refrigerators. Therefore, people are used to simply not noticing it. And in vain.
In addition to the fact that the microscopic fungus is capable of destroying entire buildings, it is also poisonous to the human body. In the process of growth, it produces substances that affect the lungs, intestines, and skin. Their spores enter the respiratory tract and "settle" inside us, opening the way for bacteria and viruses. Allergies are almost the most harmless consequence of living with mold as a neighbor. Microscopic fungus can destroy the structure of DNA and lead to cancer.
According to scientists, mold and its poison are practically not excreted from the body. The most dangerous, in this case, is the yellow mold of the genus Aspergillus, which "starts" on dairy products, fish and nuts. It releases the dangerous substance aflatoxin, which accumulates in the body and after 10 years can cause liver cancer.
The curse of Tutankhamun
Mold is today blamed for at least two mysterious deaths following archaeologist Howard Carter's discovery of the pristine tomb of King Tut. It turned out that aspergillus niger mold was still living in the tissues of the mummy's lungs, which can become fatal for people with weakened immunity or with a damaged lung system.
The first victim of "Tutankhamun" - the organizer and sponsor of the excavation Lord Carnarvon, long before the discovery of the tomb, had a terrible car accident in which he damaged his lung. He died of pneumonia some time after visiting the tomb. Following him died another participant in the excavation - Arthur Mace, who, by a tragic accident, was seriously ill before the excavation began. Its weakened immune system has become an ideal breeding ground for the lethal qualities of mold.
Invincible mold
One of the main and most dangerous properties of mold is its ubiquity. Microscopic fungi are able to survive, without exaggeration, in any conditions. They feel great among the Arctic ice, on the radioactive sarcophagus of the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and even in outer space.
So, as part of the Biorisk experiment, which was aimed at studying the effect of outer space conditions on living organisms, three capsules with mold spores Penicillum, Aspergilus and Cladosporium were taken into open space and attached to the casing of the orbital station. The results were simply stunning, mold spores not only survived after six months in outer space, but also mutated, becoming more aggressive and resistant.
And this is not a record yet. The researchers placed molds from the genus Aspergilus Fumigatus in a test tube containing a powerful anti-fungal drug. Part of the colony withstood the blow. And this is despite the fact that the chance of surviving mold under these conditions was exactly the same as that of a person placed in concentrated sulfuric acid.
Mold and antibiotics
Penicillin, the world's first antibiotic that saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers during World War II, was first developed by the British bacteriologist Alexander Fleming in 1928 from a strain of the mold Penicillum notatum.
As with most ingenious discoveries, this happened entirely by accident. In one of the Petri dishes with staphylococcus bacteria, as a result of improper storage, a gray-green mold has started. Fleming was surprised to find that the unkillable colonies of staphylococci, which claimed so many lives during the First World War, simply dissolved around this mold. The miracle cure, from which all the wounds of the military were healed literally before our eyes, was modified already during the Second World War. At the presentation of the Nobel Prize to the creators of the panacea - Fleming, Cheyne and Flory, it was said: "Penicillin did more than 25 divisions to win the war!"
"Noble" mold
Doctors strongly recommend that if the product begins to grow moldy, it must be thrown away. Simply removing the affected area will get you nowhere. If it is soft fruit, bread or jam, then the mycelium has most likely spread to the entire product.
But not all mold on food is dangerous. There is also edible mold, with the help of which mankind has been making delicious blue cheeses and camembert for several centuries.
At the beginning of the 15th century, the French king Charles VI gave the inhabitants of the village of Roquefort a monopoly on the production of cheese of the same name in the local limestone caves. The technology has hardly changed since that time. Each loaf of cheese made from sheep's milk is pierced with long needles so that mold spores can enter it. And stable high humidity and low temperatures ensure the rapid growth of mushrooms.
Another popular product made with the help of mold is the French wine Château d'Yquem. For its production, grapes are struck with "noble rot" - the fungus Bodritis Cinerea, due to which the skin of the berry loses its tightness, the fruit itself shrinks, but the content becomes more concentrated. Chateau d'Iquem, the favorite wine of the Russian aristocracy of the 19th century, is today one of the most expensive wines in the world.
Mold is one of the oldest living organisms on Earth. It appeared 200 million years ago and learned to survive in any conditions: in radiation, Arctic ice and open space. She saves lives and is capable of killing.
1
Smart mold
2
Remember the old experiment where a rat must find the right path in a maze to get food. So, as the Japanese scientist Toshuki Nakagaki found out, mold copes with this task just as well. In 2000, he carried out an experiment by placing a mold "Physarum polycephalum" at the entrance to the labyrinth, and a piece of sugar at the exit.
The mold immediately sprouted in the direction of sugar, the spores of the fungus filled the entire space in the labyrinth, bifurcating at every intersection. As soon as any of the processes hit a dead end, he turned back and looked for a way in the other direction. It took the microscopic mushroom only 4 hours to fill all the paths of the labyrinth and find the right path to sugar.
But, what is most interesting, when a piece of mushroom mycelium that had already passed through the labyrinth was pinched off and put back at the entrance to the labyrinth, putting sugar at the end, one of the sprouts unmistakably chose the shortest path to the exit from the labyrinth and sugar, and the second simply "climbed" along the walls of the labyrinth and crawled along the ceiling. Thus, simple mold revealed not only the rudiments of memory, but also the ability to non-standard way of solving problems, which indicates that the fungus has intelligence.
Dangerous mold
3
Mold accompanies us everywhere, it lives in huge colonies in bathrooms, apartments, ventilation shafts, and most unpleasantly, in our refrigerators. Therefore, people are used to simply not noticing it. And in vain.
In addition to the fact that the microscopic fungus is capable of destroying entire buildings, it is also poisonous to the human body. In the process of growth, it produces substances that affect the lungs, intestines, and skin. Their spores enter the respiratory tract and "settle" inside us, opening the way for bacteria and viruses. Allergies are almost the most harmless consequence of living with mold as a neighbor. Microscopic fungus can destroy the structure of DNA and lead to cancer.
According to scientists, mold and its poison are practically not excreted from the body. The most dangerous, in this case, is considered to be the yellow mold of the genus Aspergillus, which grows on dairy products, fish and nuts. It releases the dangerous substance aflatoxin, which accumulates in the body and after 10 years can cause liver cancer.
The curse of Tutankhamun
4
Mold is today blamed for at least two mysterious deaths following archaeologist Howard Carter's discovery of the pristine tomb of King Tut. It turned out that aspergillus niger mold still lived in the tissues of the mummy's lungs, which can become fatal for people with weakened immunity or with a damaged lung system.
The first victim of "Tutankhamun" - the organizer and sponsor of the excavation Lord Carnarvon, long before the discovery of the tomb, had a terrible car accident in which he damaged his lung. He died of pneumonia some time after visiting the tomb. Following him died another participant in the excavation - Arthur Mace, who, by a tragic accident, was seriously ill before the excavation began. Its weakened immune system has become an ideal breeding ground for the lethal qualities of mold.
Invincible mold
5
One of the main and most dangerous properties of mold is its ubiquity. Microscopic fungi are able to survive, without exaggeration, in any conditions. They feel great among the Arctic ice, on the radioactive sarcophagus of the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, and even in outer space.
So, as part of the Biorisk experiment, which was aimed at studying the effect of outer space conditions on living organisms, three capsules with mold spores Penicillum, Aspergilus and Cladosporium were taken into open space and attached to the casing of the orbital station. The results were simply stunning, mold spores not only survived after six months in outer space, but also mutated, becoming more aggressive and resistant.
And this is not a record yet. The researchers placed molds from the genus Aspergilus Fumigatus in a test tube containing a powerful anti-fungal drug. Part of the colony withstood the blow. And this is despite the fact that the chance of surviving mold under these conditions was exactly the same as that of a person placed in concentrated sulfuric acid.
Mold and antibiotics
6
Penicillin, the world's first antibiotic that saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers during World War II, was first developed by the British bacteriologist Alexander Fleming in 1928 from a strain of the mold Penicillum notatum.
As with most ingenious discoveries, this happened entirely by accident. In one of the Petri dishes with staphylococcus bacteria, as a result of improper storage, a gray-green mold has started. Fleming was surprised to find that the unkillable colonies of staphylococci, which claimed so many lives during the First World War, simply dissolved around this mold. The miracle cure, from which all the wounds of the military were healed literally before our eyes, was modified already during the Second World War. At the presentation of the Nobel Prize to the creators of the panacea - Fleming, Cheyne and Flory, it was said: "Penicillin did more than 25 divisions to win the war!"
"Noble" mold
7
Doctors strongly recommend that if the product begins to grow moldy, it must be thrown away. Simply removing the affected area will get you nowhere. If it is soft fruit, bread or jam, then the mycelium has most likely spread to the entire product.
But not all mold on food is dangerous. There is also edible mold, with the help of which mankind has been making delicious blue cheeses and camembert for several centuries.
At the beginning of the 15th century, the French king Charles VI gave the inhabitants of the village of Roquefort a monopoly on the production of cheese of the same name in the local limestone caves. The technology has hardly changed since that time. Each loaf of cheese made from sheep's milk is pierced with long needles so that mold spores can enter it. And stable high humidity and low temperatures ensure the rapid growth of mushrooms.
Another popular product made with the help of mold is the French wine Château d'Yquem. For its production, grapes are struck with "noble rot" - the fungus Bodritis Cinerea, due to which the skin of the berry loses its tightness, the fruit itself shrinks, but the content becomes more concentrated. Chateau d'Iquem, the favorite wine of the Russian aristocracy of the 19th century, is today one of the most expensive wines in the world.
Man uses molds in the manufacture of a huge amount of food, as well as in pharmaceuticals, in the pulp and paper industry, in animal husbandry and crop production. The biochemical branch of the economy, which brings the state a large share of the profit, includes a huge network of fermentation plants, developing exclusively through the use of mold microorganisms in their technological process. 
Relative concepts of harm and benefit to humans
When discussing the topic of how dangerous the influence of mold on the human body is, one should recall its most useful role in transforming lifeless soil into nutrient soil for plants, about the ability to preserve plant and dairy raw materials from spoilage for a long time. In the forest, she acts as an orderly when she decomposes old trees affected by beetles, caterpillars and worms, or destroys the corpses of dead animals.
For the same purpose, rot affects meat or fruits stored in the refrigerator, while it releases toxic waste products and upon contact (inhalation of smell, touch, human eating), it can easily transform into a fungus in the human body, the signs of which do not appear immediately, but after a period of time. Moreover, the later the disease is revealed, the more difficult it is to recover from it.
A person uses molds when ...
In food biochemistry, mold is considered as an important element that regulates the cyclical processes of fermentation of products. At the initial stage, its enzymes serve as a nutrient medium that accelerates the onset of fermentation. Later, when the yeast has lowered the sugar content in the sourdough or in the wort and the process comes to an end, it itself becomes the best treat for mold. By absorbing the amino acids of the yeast sediment, the mold produces foul-smelling and toxic excrement that destroys the nutritional value of the product.
Baking bread
Fresh and well-baked bread does not pose the risk of mold poisoning. However, any type of bakery products stored for more than a day in a closed, unventilated container or plastic bag at room temperature becomes a source of its distribution. Even if the appearance and taste of product spoilage is not detected. 
Cheese making
The state and quality of lactic acid bacteria and ferments for sour cream, kefir and cottage cheese depends on how many and what type of fungi they contain. Their presence in milk is considered a poor indicator of the sanitary condition in production and is standardized by GOST and TU. 
However, in Europe, a noble blue mold useful for human health has been bred, which is used in the manufacture of refined varieties of cheese. In the old days, it was extracted from bread aged in a cave for a week and added to the cheese mass, creating cheese - a medicine from mold, containing an antibiotic.
Winemaking
In winemaking, mold poisoning is almost impossible. Wine infected with fungus smells bad, becomes viscous and disgusting in taste. The exception is "Jerez" - as a special kind of wine that can remove the fungus from the body. It was received by sailors crossing the equator with wine in their holds. And it turned out that the mold that developed in him saved their lives. 
Can mold be poisoned?
Today science has proven that mold in the human body is undesirable in any form. However, it is impossible to achieve such purity. In the acute form, infection is noticeable immediately, for example, when the smell is inhaled and a cough or vomiting appears.
In conclusion, let us pay attention to what is the danger of mold entering the body with fresh food in small quantities? Accumulating in the blood in the respiratory organs, the brain, its colonies grow into mucous formations, without first showing any symptoms of poisoning. And only over time, diseases are discovered that a person does not associate with fungi. Therefore, you can get poisoned and imperceptibly!
When gray mold appears in the house, the hostess usually begins to do everything to get rid of it: the spoiled food is thrown away, the walls are treated with a special compound, but all measures, as a rule, give only a temporary effect. The fact is that, having appeared 200 million years ago, mold was able to adapt to any conditions. Even if the organism itself dies, mold spores will certainly persist even with increased radiation, in open space and the ice of the Arctic, and when external conditions allow them to germinate.
Intelligence and ingenuity
In all representatives of this species, including gray mold, scientists were able to detect a fairly developed thinking. There is an old experiment in which a rat is placed in a maze, from which it must find its way out to a piece of sugar. Mold does a pretty good job of this, too. It only takes a microscopic mushroom 4 hours to find a treat. The shoots begin to move in different directions, if one of them gets stuck, he turns and looks for a new road. However, this is not the most striking thing.
If you pinch off a piece of the mushroom mycelium and put it back in the same labyrinth, then the new mold will surely find the shortest path. Moreover, in one of the experiments, gray mold demonstrated the ability to think outside the box. She launched one branch along the path already traveled, and the second climbed the walls and tried to find a loophole in the ceiling.
Danger of mold
Common gray mold is a constant companion of humans. She lives in damp areas: bathrooms and toilets, rooms with poor waterproofing and ventilation. The worst thing is when mold spores end up in refrigerators. Then any food quickly becomes useless.
The microscopic fungus releases substances that are dangerous to the human body, which get inside with food, breath and even through the skin. Once in the body, mold spores open the way for dangerous bacteria and viruses, and lead to allergic reactions. Microscopic fungus can even disrupt the structure of DNA, leading to cancer.
Scientists believe that the greatest danger to humans is the yellow mold aspergillus, which lives in dairy products, nuts and fish. In the course of its life, this fungus secretes the dangerous substance aflatoxin, which accumulates in the body. It can provoke liver cancer.
The curse of the ancient pharaohs
When archaeologists uncovered the tomb of Tutankhamun, untouched by the marauders, all members of the expedition began to die one after another. People started talking about the curse of the pharaohs. In a way, it was so. In the tissues of the mummy, scientists have found living mold aspegillus niger, which is deadly for people with damage to the respiratory system or with weakened immunity.
The first victim of the "curse" was the organizer of the excavations Lord Carnarvon, whose lung was damaged as a result of a severe car accident. He died of pneumonia almost immediately after visiting the tomb. The weak immunity of seriously ill Arthur Mace was also unable to cope with the mold spores that got into the body. The archaeologist also died soon after. This was enough for the legend of the curses of the pharaohs to appear.
True immortality
Mold is very dangerous for humans, but the most unpleasant thing is that it practically cannot be destroyed. During the Biorisk experiment, aimed at studying the effect of space conditions on living organisms, three capsules with different types of mold were attached to the outer skin of the orbital station. After 6 months, they were brought to the station, after such a test, molds not only managed to survive, but also mutate, which made it more aggressive and resistant to adverse conditions.
But the scientists got the most unpleasant data when they placed the Aspergilus Fumigatus mold in a container filled with an antifungal drug. The colony not only survived, but acquired immunity to the poisonous substance.
Medicinal mold
At the beginning of the last century, scientists became interested in the extraordinary vitality of mold. As a result, the British bacteriologist Alexander Fleming managed to obtain a substance with a strong antibacterial effect, which was named penicillin, after the mold that produces it, Penicillum notatum. This discovery saved many lives during the Second World War, and also helped to cope with various infectious diseases, which previously claimed millions of lives.
Mold and gourmet cooking
If ordinary mold has started in the products, then doctors recommend discarding it, since mycelium grows throughout the entire volume of the product, even in cases where the visible affected area is microscopically small. But there is a mold used to make delicious cheeses: blue and camembert.
Noble rot (mold spores Bodritis Cinerea) is used in the production of elite wine "Chateau d'Yquem". After being damaged by a fungus, the skin of the berries is damaged, as a result of which excess moisture evaporates and the juice becomes more concentrated. Wine made in this way is one of the most expensive in the world.
Scientists believe that only cockroaches and rats can survive after a nuclear war. But they forget to add to this list the most unique and mysterious living organism on planet Earth - mold. She is able to survive not only in radiation conditions, but also in the Arctic ice and even in outer space. It kills and simultaneously saves human lives.
Molds should not be treated as protozoa. An experiment carried out in 2000 by the Japanese scientist Toshuki Nakagaki proved that mold has memory and is able to make non-standard decisions, in a word, is endowed with intelligence.
A mold "Physarum polycephalum" was placed at the entrance to the labyrinth, and a delicacy awaited him at the exit - a piece of sugar. In 4 hours, mold filled all the passages and found the right path. Curiously, the mold immediately sprouted in the right direction. At intersections, it bifurcated, and as soon as one of the processes hit a dead end, it immediately turned back.
What's more curious, when a piece of mold that had passed through the entire labyrinth was pinched off and again offered to go through the entire labyrinth from start to finish, he did it unmistakably, from memory. One of the offshoots immediately set off along the shortest path, and the other, demonstrating non-standard thinking, continued its way along the ceiling.
Mold accompanies us everywhere: there is hardly a corner in the apartment where she did not look. Even in the refrigerator, she feels great. We are so used to her neighborhood that we prefer not to notice. But in vain. Mold can destroy entire buildings; it costs nothing to kill a person.
In the process of growth, molds produce toxic substances that are deposited in the lungs, intestines, and on the skin. Allergy is the most harmless reaction that mold can provoke. A microscopic fungus is capable of destroying even a DNA molecule. The most unpleasant thing is that it is almost impossible to make the mold leave the body.
A study was conducted where a mold from the genus Aspergilus Fumigatus was placed in a test tube containing a powerful antifungal agent. It's like putting a person in a barrel of sulfuric acid. So, some part of the colony survived and felt pretty good. But what can I say, molds were found on the radioactive sarcophagus of the 4th power unit of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant.
In another experiment, three capsules containing mold spores Penicillum, Aspergilus, and Cladosporium were attached to the skin of the space station and spent six months in open space. Are they dead? No! They mutated and became more aggressive.
So do not ignore the warnings of doctors that a moldy product should not be eaten. Even if you remove the moldy piece, it won't help. Most likely, the mold has already spread the mycelium deep into the product.
The most dangerous mold of this type is the yellow mold of the genus Aspergillus. Most often, she settles on fish, nuts and dairy products. 10 years of eating spoiled dairy products and being diagnosed with liver cancer can become a scary reality.
And yet we can't help but give the mold its due! Having destroyed more than one human life, in contrast, she saved millions of other lives and continues to save to this day. The discovery of penicillin was a big deal. Thanks to this antibiotic, thousands of lives of wounded soldiers in World War II were saved.
Like most ingenious discoveries, this also happened by accident. Due to unsanitary conditions, gray-green mold has settled in the Petri dish with staphylococcus bacteria. Bacteriologist Alexander Fleming noticed that Staphylococcus aureus died around the mold of the species Penicillium notatum. This is how the antibiotic penicillin was invented.
At the presentation of the Nobel Prize to the creators of the first antibiotic - Fleming, Cheyne and Flory, it was said: "Penicillin did more than 25 divisions to win the war!"
As you can see, not all mold is capable of killing. There is also edible mold. For centuries, blue cheeses and camembert have been considered delicacies. And the French wine "Chateau d'Yquem" is one of the most expensive wines in the world today. It is made from grapes affected by "noble rot".
Her Majesty Mold! How many secrets are kept by this simplest living organism ?!
