Are Fungi The Earth’s Natural Internet?

Magic mycelium (Photo credit: Smoken Mirror)

“I believe that mycelium is the neurological network of nature. Interlacing mosaics of mycelium infuse habitats with information-sharing membranes. These membranes are aware, react to change, and collectively have the long-term health of the host environment in mind. The mycelium stays in constant molecular communication with its environment, devising diverse enzymatic and chemical responses to complex challenges.” ― Paul Stamets, Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World

The mycelium is the part of the mushroom you usually do not see. Most of it is found distributed throughout the soil, consisting of a mass of branching, thread-like structures (known as hyphae) which absorb nutrients and decompose organic materials. The mycelium can be exceedingly small or may form a colony of massive proportions.

Is this the largest organism in the world? This 2,400-acre (9.7 km²) site in eastern Oregon had a contiguous growth of mycelium before logging roads cut through it. Estimated at 1,665 football fields in size and 2,200 years old, this one fungus has killed the forest above it several times over, and in so doing has built deeper soil layers that allow the growth of ever-larger stands of trees. Mushroom-forming forest fungi are unique in that their mycelial mats can achieve such massive proportions.

—Paul Stamets, Mycelium Running

The mycelium has extraordinary properties suitable for bioremediation. It is capable of degrading pesticides and plastics, and has been shown to break down petroleum in a matter of weeks. This, however, is only the physio-chemical dimension of the mycelium; according to Paul Stamets, it also has information/consciousness associated properties:

“I see the mycelium as the Earth’s natural Internet, a consciousness with which we might be able to communicate. Through cross-species interfacing, we may one day exchange information with these sentient cellular networks. Because these externalized neurological nets sense any impression upon them, from footsteps to falling tree branches, they could relay enormous amounts of data regarding the movements of all organisms through the landscape.” —Paul Stamets, Mycelium Running

The notion that fungi may participate in some form of planetary interspecies communication and/or consciousness through their mycelium may seam a bit ‘far out,’ but consider that mushrooms have been used to expand consciousness for countless millennia.  Even beyond the well-known psychedelic (literally “soul showing”) properties of some species (particularly Lion’s Mane) are their neuritogenic properties; that is, their ability to promote new neural cell growth and the enhancement of communication between them. The resemblance between the filamentous structures within the brain (axons; dendrites) and the fungi within the soil (mycelium) may therefore be more than accidental.

Our relationship to fungi is in fact closer than most think.  According to David McLaughlin, professor of plant biology at the University of Minnesota in the College of Biological Sciences, human cells are surprisingly similar to fungal cells.  In a 2006 Science Daily article the topic is explored further:

In 1998 scientists discovered that fungi split from animals about 1.538 billion years ago, whereas plants split from animals about 1.547 billion years ago. This means fungi split from animals 9 million years after plants did, in which case fungi are actually more closely related to animals than to plants. The fact that fungi had motile cells propelled by flagella that are more like those in animals than those in plants, supports that. — Science Daily

 

Could this filial bond also be why many species of fungi have such profound medicinal properties in humans? Mushrooms, and their components, have in fact been some of the most extensively studied natural medicines in existence, with a number of human clinical trials proving their anti-cancer properties.

Are Fungi The Earth’s Natural Internet? | GreenMedInfo | Blog entry | Natural Medicine | Alternative Medicine | Integrative Medicine | Consumer Advocacy.

 

Bioluminescent Brazilian Mushroom Shines Like a Night Light

Wednesday, July 06, 2011

A forgotten fungus found in 1840 has been reclassified and its glowing properties studied to understand how and why it shines brightly enough to read a book by.

In 1840, renowned English botanist George Gardner discovered the fungus over 170 years ago when he saw children playing with the glowing object, which they called “flor-de-coco.” Gardner sent a sample to England’s Kew Herbarium and it was classified as Agaricus gardneri.

The mushroom is bioluminescent, ie it produces a glowing light, like fireflies and some jellyfish. This phenomenon is also known as “foxfire” and is seen in some other fungi like jack o’lantern mushrooms.

However, what makes these fungi glow, and why, are questions that present-day researchers want to answer.

To find new specimens of the fungus, Dennis Desjardin at San Francisco State University and Cassius Stevani at the University of Sao Paulo went hunting in Brazilian forests. They had to “go out on new moon nights and stumble around in the forest, running into trees,” said Desjardin in a press release.

Using digital cameras, the scientists took photos of potentially biolumiscent fungi to check the images for any glow invisible to the naked eye, and located new specimens of the forgotten mushroom.

After examining samples to determine the mushroom’s anatomy, physiology and genetics, they reclassified it as Neonothopanus gardneri.

{etRelated 57745}The scientists have theorized that the mushroom bioluminesces like a firefly, using a mixture of luciferin and the enzyme luciferase to emit light via a reaction with oxygen and water. However, they have been unable to locate these compounds in the fungus.

“They glow 24 hours a day, as long as water and oxygen are available,” said Desjardin. “But animals only produce this light in spurts. This tells us that the chemical that is acted upon by the enzyme in mushrooms has to be readily available and abundant.”

Yet the reason why mushrooms glow has not come to light. One hypothesis is this attracts insects and aids spore dispersal. However, in jack o’lanterns, the foxfire comes from the mycelium or root-like network that gathers food for the fungus.

“We have no idea yet why this happens,” said Desjardin. “Maybe the mycelium is glowing to attract the enemy of these insects, and will eat them before they can eat the mycelium. But we don’t have any data to support this.”

Desjardin has studied bioluminescent fungi from all over the world to determine why and how this happens, and whether it is the same chemical phenomenon occurring in each species.

Bioluminescent Brazilian Mushroom Shines Like a Night Light | Before It’s News.

Mind-Controlling Fungus Are Among Us!

Image via Wikipedia

Tuesday, April 19, 2011 7:04

We don’t have the world quite as figured out as we’d like to think. This is a major reason why most people aren’t as interested as others in exploring space; we haven’t even come close to exploring our own back yards. While I am looking forward to reading about further study of Mars, and beyond, I tend to agree.

Why just last year 145 new species were identified in Greater Mekong, and another 200 new species were discovered in Papua New Guinea. On top of all that, the year 2010 saw 1/3 of formerly extinct animals suddenly “resurrected.”

Among the creatures that scientists are studying further are a frog that sounds like a cricket, a “sucker fish” which uses its body to stick to rocks in fast flowing waters to move upstream, and something called a “dracula minnow.”

And then there have been some recent discoveries that sound like the stuff of classic horror films. One involves “four newly discovered species of fungus turn carpenter ants into zombie ants to help them spread their spores.” Another recent story involves a microorganism that rewires the brain of its host, causing the host to put itself into harm’s way.

The mind-controlling fungus is something that researchers have been aware of; but it hadn’t been studied and cataloged until recently. From an article at The Guardian:

Ants become infected with the fungus when spores land on them from above, or when they encounter them on the forest floor. Once attached, the spores use enzymes to get inside the ant’s body where the fungus begins to grow. Within a week or so, chemicals released by the fungus cause the ant to wander off and bite on to leaf veins and other vegetation, moments before dying. Many ants are found in places where the conditions are perfect for fungal growth.

Once the ant has died, the fungus slowly sprouts from its head and grows a pod of spores which are fired onto the forest floor at night, to infect other ants.

About the mind-controlling microorganisms, here’s something unsettling from The Guardian:

Toxoplasma gondii is a microorganism that likes nothing better than to set up residence inside a warm-blooded host, typically a rat. The only time it gets particularly fussy over its surroundings is when it comes to sex, which can only take place in a cat. That poses a bit of a problem for the parasite, as rats aren’t known for their fondness of the feline race.

But T. gondii has a very clever trick up its sleeve: it rewires the rat brain. Rodents infected with T. gondii lose their instinctual fear of cats and engage in reckless risk-taking that sooner or later puts them into the jaws of a passing cat.

Should we be concerned that around 40% of the human race is infected with T. gondii?

For a long time, nobody thought so. T. gondii is known to cause birth defects and precipitate spontaneous abortions, and for that reason pregnant women are warned to stay away from cats. But it’s also one of any number of bugs that we pick up in our lifetime without experiencing any noticeable effects.

That perception changed when a Czech parasitologist named Jaroslav Flegr decided to look for evidence that T. gondii’s mind-meddling extends beyond rats. Testing the blood of drivers responsible for causing traffic accidents, he discovered they were two and a half times more likely to have been exposed to T. gondii than the general population. Might these drivers have been unwittingly egged on by a tiny parasite?

While recent research suggests that this microorganism isn’t able to impose the same kind of control that it can over a rat, the research does suggest that it is able to impose influence. You can read about Jaroslav Flegr’s traffic accident study HERE.

This find is intriguing. A microorganism that deliberately influences people and animals to engage in risky behavior is intriguing; and opens up many questions. Is this something to consider when hearing about someone who was gripped with the urge to drive into oncoming traffic? Is this microorganism something that could be utilized by us humans; for example, as a treatment for someone who is too shy?

Frank Swain looked at research linking changes in human behaviour to parasitic infection for a Radio 4 documentary Voodoo Wasps and Zombie Worms airing on Tuesday, and then re-airs on Thursday.

Mind-Controlling Microorganisms Are Among Us! | Before It’s News.

Related Articles

• There are voodoo wasps and zombie worms, what about people? (guardian.co.uk)
• “Zombie Fungus ~ Mind-Control of Brazilian Ants!” and related posts (maximizingprogress.org)
• Your feet – Onychomycosis (Nail fungus) (feetandpodiatry.wordpress.com)
• Zombie Ant-pocalypse: New Species of Mind-Controlling Fungus Found (geeksaresexy.net)
• Zombie ants: Killer fungus turning Amazon rainforest ants into colonies of zombies (dailymail.co.uk)