Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Science/2022 November 4

= November 4 =

fungal infections from ancient tombs
I've been seeing stories that after 12 research scientists entered the 500 year old tomb of Casimir IV Jagiellon, 4 of them died days later, and another 6 died months later. It is speculated that the deaths may have been due to a fungal infection caused by exposure to Aspergillus while in the tomb. My question is about the specific incident involving the King of Poland's tomb in the 1970s. I've had a difficult time finding contemporary accounts or any reliable sources to confirm these deaths. Any additional info would be greatly appreciated. mikeu talk 23:28, 4 November 2022 (UTC)
 * This is already mentioned in the article you link, in the section Tomb, with a reference cited to a reliable source. {The poster formerly known as 87.81.230.195} 5.64.163.219 (talk) 08:19, 5 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Specifically; this. Alansplodge (talk) 12:32, 5 November 2022 (UTC)
 * Yes, I saw that. If ten out of twelve researchers died after entering the tomb it would be an extraordinary occurrence. I would expect it to have been covered in the news, yet the ProQuest historic news database does not return any results. It would be of great scientific interest, but Scholar lacks any hits. One source that I linked to mentions a "Dr. B. Symk" who survived. Scholar shows one paper by the author about microbiology but nothing about this dramatic incident. All of the sources that I've found repeat the same vague claim without details or reference to a primary source. --mikeu talk 14:31, 5 November 2022 (UTC)
 * What I understand from an article in the English edition of the printed magazine Poland (volume 351, no. 3, 1987) with the title "Anathemas, Microbes and Scholars", is that the role of prof. Bolesław Szyk, a microbiologist from the Kraków Agricultural Academy, was that he examined the microbes in the tomb. One may assume that as a microbiologist he understood the risks and took proper precautions, unlike the hapless archaeologists. The snippet view makes it hard to see the full story. The author of the article is science journalist Zbigniew Święch, who has an article on the Polish Wikipedia. He wrote a book with the title Klątwy, mikroby i uczeni, which in English means Anathemas, Microbes and Scholars, the same as the title of the magazine article. --Lambiam 02:44, 6 November 2022 (UTC)
 * The Polish Wikipedia also has an article on Klątwy, mikroby i uczeni, which turns out to be a series of three books. The first book in the series is devoted to "the curse of Casimir Jagiellon". --Lambiam 02:54, 6 November 2022 (UTC)