Boing Boing Baudoinia
Published: January 10th, 2012
Revised: January 10th, 2012
Popular technogeekzine Boing Boing recently picked up on the growing interest in our work on the warehouse staining fungus, Baudoinia compniacensis. This nifty black fungus grows in places where small amounts of alcohol vapour are emitted, like spirit aging warehouses and bakeries. The fungus is interesting because it turns out to be extremely tolerant of periods of very hot and dry conditions. This resistance appears to be triggered by brief exposure to alcohol vapours.
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Spor-Mo-Metrics – Our Movember Team
Published: December 12th, 2011
Revised: December 12th, 2011
This year three of our staff joined the international ranks of Mo Bros and Mo Sistas to raise money and awareness for men’s health. Our Spor-Mo-Metrics team consisting of A ”mean stache” Maharaj; Mike “the handle-bar” Saleh, and “Yor-de-cutest Mo Sista” Guardiola raised over $1000 for Prostate Canada. Congratulations to all the Movember participants and supporters across the globe who raised over $110 million of vital funds and awareness for men’s health, specifically prostate cancer. A special congratulations to our client Stantec, lead by Steve Fulford, who by raising over $122k climbed the team leader board to #3 in Canada.
WIRED whisky fungus story wins prestigious Kavli Science Journalism Award
Published: November 17th, 2011
Revised: November 17th, 2011
We congratulate Adam Rogers, senior science editor at WIRED magazine, for receiving the 2011 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award for best magazine article for “The Angel’s Share”, in which he recounted Dr. Scott’s work on the whisky fungus, Baudoinia compniacensis. The Kavli awards are administered by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), which publishes Science, the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, along with numerous other publications and programs that raise the bar of understanding for science worldwide. The AAAS has administered these awards to professional journalists for distinguished reporting for a general audience since their inception in 1945.
”The [Angel’s Share] story skillfully slips the spinach of science into the reader as smoothly as a shot of fine whiskey,” said science reporter Dan Vergano of USA Today. Laura Helmuth, a senior editor for Smithsonian magazine, called it “a charming story—unexpected, vivid, dramatic.” She added that Rogers “deftly explains the relevant history, chemistry, evolutionary biology, taxonomy, and mycology. ”Rogers said he became fascinated with what makes a fungus grow outside distillery warehouses. “And then it turned out that a scientist-detective was looking into the mystery, and he was in love with it,” Rogers said. “I think that kind of passion always makes for a good story.”
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US Joint Genome Institute releases Baudoinia sequence
Published: July 26th, 2011
Revised: July 26th, 2011
The US Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute (JGI) today released the full, annotated genome sequence of Baudoinia compniacensis, a fungus we discovered that was featured in the June 2011 issue of WIRED MAGAZINE. This extremophilic sooty mold is the prominent pioneering species in the primary successional community known as “warehouse staining”, where darkly pigmented microbes form dry biofilms on outdoor surfaces periodically subjected to low level exposure to ethyl alcohol vapour, such as those around distilleries, spirit maturation facilities (“bond warehouses”) and commercial bakeries. Sporometrics worked closely with JGI throughout the project, developing protocols and supplying high quality genomic DNA and total RNA for the sequencing project.
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Dr. Scott on AIHA’s Safe and Sound
Published: July 8th, 2011
Revised: July 8th, 2011
On the July 8, 2011 edition of AIHA’s Safe and Sound podcast hosted by Craig Sorrell and Katherine Grandstaff, they speak with Dr. James Scott about a mystery fungus that grows around whiskey distilleries. Dr. Scott’s discoveries were recently highlighted in the June 2011 issue of Wired Magazine.
You can access the podcast either via a subscription to AIHA presents Safe and Sound free in iTunes or:
