A bird? An insect? Usain Bolt? None of that. The fastest living thing on the planet can leave even the most complex human devices in a pit of shame. It is so fast that if we were subjected to a fraction of its acceleration capacity we would be much less than pulp. We imagine you are already thinking of some possibilities, but the answer lies in an incredible place, and by the way, particularly disgusting.
One of the wonders of the Internet is that it has become the ideal source of information to answer those somewhat complex questions that children often ask. Of course, the idea is not to sit a small child in front of a Wikipedia article about reproduction when they ask “Where do babies come from?”, but in some cases the Internet allows certain creative and healthy shortcuts, while in others it can give a direct and precise answer.
Let's imagine, for example, a question like “What is it that runs fastest?” That is relatively easy, as it is the cheetah. But the little ones at home usually don't settle for that, and eventually comes “Is there anything faster?” One can refer to a falcon, which can break the barrier of three hundred kilometers per hour, with the obvious difference that it flies and does not run.
Pilobolus, the fastest living thing in the world
But there is something even faster. It does not run, nor does it fly, but what it does is expel. Now, there will be no shortage of those who point out that acceleration and speed are not the same, however, the ability of this minuscule creature is astonishing. At first glance, not much can be said about Pilobolus, beyond being a genus of fungi that grows in dung. The spore of Pilobolus is consumed by herbivores directly on the grass, survives the entire digestion process, and germinates once the excrement is evacuated.
The achievement of Pilobolus comes when it “shoots” the spore. It can go from zero to thirty-two kilometers per hour in just two millionths of a second, and its acceleration reaches twenty thousand G's. If we consider that highly trained and experienced fighter pilots can withstand nine or ten G's for a few seconds, it is easy to conclude that the acceleration of the Pilobolus spore is monstrous.
The most surprising thing of all is that Pilobolus has a perfectly logical reason for shooting its spores that way. At its scale, the air is much “thicker”, so the spore suffers a significant level of friction. Still, a Pilobolus can throw its spore to a maximum distance of two meters, far enough from the dung so that another herbivore can consume it, and repeat its life cycle naturally.
The video belongs to a three-episode documentary presented by the BBC in March 2010 called “Richard Hammond’s Invisible Worlds”, which places special emphasis on the use of high technology to see and appreciate what normally escapes our eyes. If penicillin was found on moldy bread, and the fastest living thing on the planet is in dung, we can only wait to see where the next wonder will come from.
