Are mushrooms Mother Nature's built-in solution to plastic pollution?
In a world overrun with plastic waste, the potential hero may arise from the humble realm of fungi. With between two and four million species worldwide, these often overlooked creatures hold possibilities ranging from alternative building materials to cleansing environmental toxins. Scientists Read More...
“Twilight Zone” fungi from the ocean’s depths—a new frontier for antibiotic discovery
In a revolutionary discovery, the largest-ever investigation of ocean DNA, published in the journal Frontiers in Science, has shown a plethora of fungi living in the ocean's mysterious twilight zone. This enormous study builds on a comprehensive ocean DNA catalog that includes over 317 million Read More...
Flora, fauna, and funga! UN advocates for new turn of phrase in conservation discourse
The United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity (UNCBD) argued for the inclusion of fungi in conservation debates alongside flora and fauna so that fungi are “recognized and protected on an equal footing with animals and plants in legal conservation frameworks”. This shift in perspective Read More...
Four surprising reasons to add more mushrooms to your diet
Here at The Optimist Daily, we are huge fans of mushrooms. As each year passes, more scientists are turning toward fantastic fungi to treat a range of mental health conditions and look to their impressive networks for inspiration in building complex computing devices. Mushrooms have soared in Read More...
Research suggests that mushrooms use language to talk to each other
Just when we thought mushrooms couldn’t get any cooler, a scientist from the University of West England recently published some more fabulous news about fungi and how they might communicate. According to his findings, Professor Andrew Adamatzky believes that the electrical impulses mushrooms Read More...
Always growing: a dive back into the marvelous world of mushrooms
“Nature alone is antique, and the oldest art a mushroom.” - Thomas Carlyle, Scottish philosopher, and essayist Science is ever-changing. Scientists and physicians used to be sure that contagions and diseases were spread from person to person by smell. This was called the Miasma Theory, and Read More...
The secrets behind the ferocity of fungi exposed
Armillaria ostoyae is one of the toughest tree-killing fungi on the planet. It assembles with black tentacle-like structures called rhizomorphs, which leach onto trees and suck out their nutrients. The reason the fungi is so hard to kill has previously baffled scientists, with farmers hacking Read More...
Scientists strive to map and preserve underground fungal networks
Science is taking the fight against climate change underground—literally. The Society for the Protection of Underground Networks is on a mission to uncover the mysteries of the vast fungal networks found in the soil under our feet. We know that there’s an underground network comprised of Read More...
Online mushroom hotline puts the power of crowdsourcing in poison control
Ninety nine percent of mushrooms are non-toxic, but the one percent which are can have fatal consequences if accidentally ingested. For people with pets or young children, a seemingly harmless patch of fungi in the front yard could be disastrous. Fortunately, a growing Facebook group is here to Read More...
The sushi of the future will have fish-free versions of tuna made of fungi
Although the fishing industry usually has a lower environmental impact than meat farming, overfishing is an issue, so innovators are racing to come up with more sustainable alternatives without compromising too much on flavor. Among such innovators is Aqua Cultured Foods. The startup grows Read More...