Saturday Morning With Jack Tame

There are heaps of particles that fly in the air (apart from molecules of Oxygen, Nitrogen and Carbon Dioxide, of course). For instance, sea-salt is a biggie near the coast. Others are smoke from bush fires, soot, pollutants, dust. You name it and it flies.  We all know about birds, insects, flying fish and sugar gliders, flying squirrels and such critters, plant seeds and helicopter seeds from maple trees. Then there are bio-aerosols (micro-organisms). I’ve read some amazing statistics about fungal spores in the air. Take a puffball. Drop some water on the outer skin and see it release its spores. It looks like smoke. Millions of spores float in the air – amazing dispersal! Fungal spores are very common in the air – you might not see them as easily as the “smoke” from puffballs, but there are estimates of concentrations as high as 10,000,000 spores per cubic meter!  Fungi in the groups Ascomycetes and Basidiomycetes can cause allergies in humans with over 13,000 spores per cubic meter considered a high conce