Abstract
PARTICLES or droplets suspended in air often carry an electrostatic charge. The size and magnitude of the charge depend on how the charge originates (commonly by picking up positive or negative ions from the air). The phenomenon appears to be fundamentally distinct from the characteristic positive or negative charges acquired by particles in colloidal solution1. Buller reported that spores of the common mushroom (Agaricus campestris) and the dryad's saddle (Polyporus squamosus) already carry either positive or negative charges when they are shed into the air by the fungus2. Ingold has recently suggested that in fungi with long, narrow, vertical hymenial tubes, such as Ganoderma applanatum, electrostatic forces may serve to keep a basidiospore in the middle of the tube while it is slowly falling under gravity to the exterior3.
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References
Freundlich, H., “Colloid and Capillary Chemistry”, 781 (1926).
Buller, A. H. R., “Researches on Fungi”, 1, 192 (1909).
Ingold, C. T., Endeavour, 16, 81 (1957).
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GREGORY, P. Electrostatic Charges on Spores of Fungi in Air. Nature 180, 330 (1957). https://doi.org/10.1038/180330a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/180330a0
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