Mystery of Alaska's Orange Goo Solved

Alaska’s Orange Goo Mystery Solved: Strange orange slime that invaded to a standstill in a remote village in Alaska, and has attracted widespread attention in the past year have been identified. Despite the occasional conspiracy theories and speculation on the Internet, it was like nonalien and nontoxic. But beyond that, no one knew what to do. Until now.

Researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) initially thought that the strange goo had created millions of tiny crustaceans, eggs, fatty oils through the transparent egg sacs cause a strange orange color. Upon further analysis, scientists have changed their diagnosis, saying that it is in fact the mass of spores on the type of fungus called rust - the so-called its characteristic orange color - but the amount and location have never seen.

But part of it remains a mystery: scientists have been unable to pinpoint the exact appearance of rust, sample tests, they correspond to any of the reference samples, and did not see anyone. What could he say?

This could mean that the ship was a bit strange unknown species of fungi rust. Or it may mean that the sample was not a stranger, but something does not happen to fit in the database NOAA. In the end, specialty Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration NOAA, but not fungal microorganisms. For this you need mycologist - a botanist who specializes in fungi. In fact, the final set came from a collaboration between the services the U.S. and Canada forest.

Writer Jennifer Frazer covers the story of his strange "Artful Amoeba" blog for Scientific American, and said that the mystery was finally solved, "the identity of the rust was found at the end. This spruce Labrador tea needle rust, Chrysomyxa ledicola, a parasite, like spruce and rhododendron - the total flowering woody shrub understorey conifer in the world -. Labrador tea is called "

This is not the first time when millions of tiny living have caused a massive secret. In 2010, a strange, 4 feet (1.2 meters) and yellow-brown droplets found in the lake in Newport News, Virginia, has caused excitement and made national news. Some thought it was a monster, the other suspect in a strange and even membership in the film. By an irony reminiscent of Alaska mucus, a mysterious drop of water was bryozoans, colonies of small animals that eat algae.

This is not entirely clear why the mushrooms and bryozoans in these cases have appeared in such notable quantities, but there is no doubt that they are perfectly natural phenomena.

Benjamin Radford is deputy editor of Skeptical Inquirer science magazine and author of "Scientific Paranormal Investigation: How to Solve Unexplained Mysteries". His website is www.BenjaminRadford.com.