Amanita bisporigera is a fungus that produces a deadly poisonous
mushroom commonly known as the destroying angel, a name it shares with
three other lethal white Amanita species. It is found on the ground in
mixed coniferous and deciduous forests of Eastern North America, and
rarely in western North America and Colombia. It has a smooth white cap
that can reach up to 10 cm (3.9 in) across with crowded white gills,
and a stalk up to 14 cm (5.5 in) long with a delicate white skirt-like
ring near the top. The bulbous base is covered with a membranous sac-
like volva. First described in 1906, A. bisporigera typically bears two
spores on the basidia, as the species name suggests. The mushroom
produces amatoxins, which inhibit a vital enzyme when eaten, RNA
polymerase II. The first symptoms of poisoning appear 6 to 24 hours
after consumption, followed by a period of apparent improvement, then by
progressive liver and kidney failure, and death after four days or more.
The DNA of A. bisporigera has been partially sequenced, and the genes
responsible for the production of amatoxins have been determined.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amanita_bisporigera>
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Today's selected anniversaries:
1215:
King John of England put his seal to Magna Carta.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magna_Carta>
1878:
Eadweard Muybridge took a series of photographs to prove that
all four feet of a horse leave the ground when it gallops (animation
pictured); the study became the basis of motion pictures.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sallie_Gardner_at_a_Gallop>
1919:
After nearly 16 hours, the Vickers Vimy flown by John Alcock
and Arthur Whitten Brown crash-landed in County Galway, Ireland, to
complete the first non-stop transatlantic flight.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_flight_of_Alcock_and_Brown>
1954:
The Union of European Football Associations, the administrative
and controlling body for European football, was founded in Basel,
Switzerland.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA>
1996:
The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army detonated a
truck bomb in the commercial centre of Manchester, England, injuring
more than 200 people and causing widespread damage to buildings.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1996_Manchester_bombing>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
dung beetle:
A type of beetle of the family Scarabaeidae noted for rolling dung into
balls for use as food or as brooding chambers.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/dung_beetle>
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Wikiquote quote of the day:
We must get the American public to look past the glitter, beyond
the showmanship, to the reality, the hard substance of things. And we'll
do it not so much with speeches that sound good as with speeches that
are good and sound; not so much with speeches that will bring people to
their feet as with speeches that will bring people to their senses.
--Mario Cuomo
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mario_Cuomo>