Researchers find Belizean fungus that eats CD

In technology news, scientists have discovered a fungus that eats supposedly indestructible compact discs. The interesting thing is the place the fungus was first detected is Belize. A report in Britain’s “Telegraph” newspaper says that a leading scientist from Spain’s top research institution made the discovery two years ago while visiting friends in Belize. The friends complained that one of their CD’s had stopped working and had developed a strange discoloration, which left parts of the disc virtually transparent. The scientist, Dr. Victor Cardenas, took the CD back to Spain where he and colleagues discovered that a microscopic fungus was eating its way through the plastic, aluminium and even data-storing polycarbonate resin. Biologists at Madrid’s Superior Council for Scientific Research said that they’d never seen this particular fungus before, but concluded that it belonged to a common genus called geotrichum. Philips, the Dutch electronics corporation that invented the compact disc, told “The Telegraph” that the episode in Belize was a freak occurrence, likely caused by extremely humid weather conditions.