Micro creatures are terrifying and almost indestructible

Not only does it create a dreadful feeling, mold also contains a lot of risk of infection and it's really hard to kill.

You can list two types of mold: The beneficial and the harmful. Beneficial molds, such as Penicillium notatum , used to make penicillin, are estimated to have saved more than 200 million lives. Meanwhile, harmful molds like Aspergillus Flavus can secrete toxic substances that kill you.

But whether it is beneficial or harmful, mold is still everywhere. In fact, you're mostly breathing them and there's no way you can avoid them.

Mold is a fungus. Like tree-shaped mushrooms (fruiting mushrooms), they are made up of thousands of thinner fibrous tissues called "hyphy". They use these fibers to get nutrients similar to roots. Hyphy reaches deep into old bread or broken tomatoes and releases enzymes (enzymes), similar to the enzymes that break down in our stomachs.

Mold has beneficial and harmful species.

Molds digest food like our bodies. In other words, if you're a moldy person, you'll face yourself in food and absorb food through your skin. Kathy Hodge, a mold and mold research specialist at Cornell University, said: 'When you really see the rag mold mold, the hyphy has spread all the way below the surface of the food. So just cutting off the mold will not prevent their reproduction. Just like cutting off leaves does not kill the tree. '

The scary thing is that mold is very omnivorous . It is easy to see that they like to eat bread but some molds also like dead skin, soap and even wallpaper. According to Nicolas Money, the author of a few books on mold: There is a plentiful source of food underneath the wall stickers, as long as the conditions are wet, they will immediately multiply.

But there is one thing that is even more difficult to control of mold. Their spores. Fungal spores, similar to the seeds of a plant, are used for reproduction. They produce extremely light and extremely small petiole structures. Fungi spores will be generated at the beginning of these reproductive stems. And then they follow the diffuse airflow into the atmosphere.

Only a single mold filament can produce hundreds of thousands of spores. So it's no surprise that measurement results in large cities like Chicago per square meter can add up to 125,000 mold spores. That is, millions of tons of mold spores float in the atmosphere. It sounds like a myth but that's right!

It's hard to imagine this huge number. And they're not just on the street, they're in your home, they're everywhere. To prove it to you, I did a little indoor experiment. Just high school biology knowledge.

This is a petri lab dish, put in something called a "jelly," which basically means how I create the essential habitat for mold. I am excited to put them in my apartment and see what kind of mold will grow on these plates. I put one on the bed, one near the window, one in the toilet, and I let them open the lid for an hour to collect the spores.

A week later, they look like this. Yes, I am not sure if the images received will be beautiful or just hideous. The test dish is located near the window with the most diverse number of landmarks. About 10 species of mold. Most are the common types of mold found indoors, says Professor Hodge. And the plate lay on my bed. It means my daily backyard, not without it.

New to hear it is terrifying. But is that the case? There is at least one type of mold in the collected experiment, called Cladosporium. According to Mr. Money: Sometimes people sneeze hard, actually due to the reaction to Cladosporium. In other words, if we have enough spores in our lungs, we will cause a series of allergies. And if the number is even bigger, mold can lead to asthma.

But the truth is worse than that. Some molds can produce toxins, called "mycotoxins." For example, Stachybotrys (black mold). Stachybotrys produce toxins in the air and they negatively affect our health. Even if the amount of toxins is large enough, they can affect cognitive ability. The mycotoxins found in rancid foods contain potential risks.

The mold found in damaged cheese is toxic. Among them is a type of mold called Penitrem, which produces nerve toxins. So, if you eat food that has started to fail without noticing the mold that has spread below it, then it is not a good idea.

But there is a small note: In fact, there are not many species of harmful fungi, including the kinds of poisonous plays . For example, the types of mold I collect at home are virtually harmless. There are even so many types of mold that we can't live without. Not only is Penicillin, but things like Tolypocladium inflatum are used to make an immunosuppressant called Cyclosporine.

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