---
author: Eric Wagoner
date: '2000-08-28T12:43:10'
draft: false
title: 'My new favorite scientific term:'
---

My new favorite scientific term: [Rings of Repugnance](http://www.clusterheadaches.com/wwwboard/messages/25458.html). These are the tall rings of grass that circle cow patties in the pasture. Cows won't eat that close to their dung, so the grass grows taller. There is a variety of fungus ("Coprophilous" -- "dung loving") that lives in dung piles. To thrive, spores from these fungii must get eaten by an animal in order to get redeposited in a fresh dung pile. But, due to the Ring of Repugnance, they have a hard time finding a way in the animal. The solution? The spores have developed little propulsion systems that launch them outside the Ring of Repugnance. For more information, see [Be It Ever So Humble, There's No Place Like Dung](http://www.accessexcellence.org/RC/CT/no_place_like_dung.html) from the Carolina Biological Supply Company. Incidentally, most "magic mushrooms" are coprophilous. You might want to wash them before you snack.