Keyword Mold

When elderly mother Edna inexplicably vanishes, her daughter rushes to the family's decaying home, finding clues of her increasing dementia scattered around the house in her absence.

In this educational film, laboratory demonstrations show the effects of moisture and temperature on the growth of molds. Photomicrography reveals the structure of molds: hyphae, mycelium, spore balls, spores. Beginning with spores on a rice culture, time-lapse photography shows the formation of a new colony.

Photographers Brooke Konrad and Tanner Behlman travel to rural, abandoned buildings to capture the inherent beauty of long-forgotten locations, but far from forgotten are the traumatic memories that surface in Brooke when they meet The Man Upstairs, an unsuspecting squatter. As tensions and uncertainties arise, Brooke must determine if this mysterious stranger will provide her the closure she so desperately seeks or let the fears of the past consume her.

Ever wondered what would happen in your own home if you were taken away, and everything inside was left to rot? The answer is revealed in this fascinating programme, which explores the strange and surprising science of decay. For two months in summer 2011, a glass box containing a typical kitchen and garden was left to rot in full public view within Edinburgh Zoo. In this resulting documentary, presenter Dr George McGavin and his team use time-lapse cameras and specialist photography to capture the extraordinary way in which moulds, microbes and insects are able to break down our everyday things and allow new life to emerge from old. Decay is something that many of us are repulsed by. But as the programme shows, it's a process that's vital in nature. And seen in close up, it has an unexpected and sometimes mesmerising beauty.

Richard Turcotte meets people who, like him, had to live through the nightmare of a renovation project gone wrong. Water leaks, fungi, vermin infestations, undrinkable water, shaky structures: these unlucky owners have seen it all! Richard explains the consequences that a problem house can have on the mental, physical, financial and familial health on its owners.