Books with amazing illustrations are always a great way for children to learn, and that’s why Humongous Fungus (Underground and All Around) by Lynne Boddy is the perfect choice.

De a legfontosabb, hogy a gombák arra késztetnek minket, hogy az életet egy teljesen más perspektívából szemléljük. A növény- és állatvilág a többsejtűvé válás során azt az utat választotta, hogy sejtjeit halmozni kezdte, majd hagyta őket specializálódni – így születtek a szervek. A gombák ezzel szemben nem halmozódnak, hanem kiterjednek, fonalakat növesztenek mindenfelé, amelyek szétválnak, később újra összekapcsolódnak, valamiféle átláthatatlan szövedéket hozva létre. Kicsit mintha egy focipálya méretű idegsejt-hálózatot látnánk, a központi agy nélkül. A növények és az állatok határai általában világosak. Tudjuk, hogy hol kezdődik a szarvas és hol végződik a szarvas, mondhatjuk tehát, hogy ez szarvas, ez meg már nem szarvas. Szóval a szarvast tekinthetjük individuumnak. A gombáknál ez a bináris szemlélet egyszerűen nem működik. Merthogy a gombák végtelenül nyitott kapcsolatokban élnek. Nem csak arról van szó, hogy képesek tartósan szimbióta lényekké alakulni, mint amilyenek a fenn említett zuzmók. Hanem olyan elképesztő hálózatokat alakítanak ki az erdő talajszintjében, összekapcsolódva más gombafajokkal, összenőve a fák gyökérzetével, hogy ott már egyszerűen lehetetlen megmondani, melyik az egyik gomba és melyik a másik, hol végződik a fa gyökérzete, és hol kezdődnek a gombák mikorrhiza-szövedékei. Egyetlen fa akár száz gombafajjal is kapcsolatot építhet ki, egyetlen gombafaj pedig akár száz különböző fásszárúval. És ez az összefonódás egészen eszméletlen következményekkel járhat, amelyeknek bizonyos aspektusait még ma sem értik a mikológusok***. The images are illustrations, but they’re near-exact replicas of the real thing. Alongside the color-in pictures are clear descriptions, written for eight to 18-year-olds, that inform children about the important details of various mushrooms. These are all simplistic descriptions – the book is wide ranging, often more interested in posing questions or giving alternative views than giving simple answers or go for straight explanation.Some books deserve all the stars in the world, Entangled Life being one of them. I’ve read quite a few science books so far, and in each of them I have found something to fascinate me. But none of them managed to immerse me so deeply into it like this one.

The tips circulate “information”, and, in response, the mycelium makes advantageous changes to its behaviour. This is more than mere chemical reaction. Here is a responsive entity with interests that its actions can serve or harm. Sheldrake tries out the idea of swarm-intelligence, but a swarm consists of separate individuals, whereas the network of fused or entangled hyphae functions as a physical whole – or much more like a physical whole. Studying fungi makes these lines harder to draw. You will learn here how to grow oyster mushrooms out of baby poop (removing the plastic from the diapers first, of course), how mushrooms can 'consume' Saddam Hussein's VX gas, degrade pesticides and remove infectious diseases like E. coli. a legfontosabb, amire a gombák megtaníthatnak minket, az az élet átfogó, ökológiai szemlélete. Darwin után az élővilágot egyfajta versengésként írták le, ahol a fajok egymással harcolnak, az erősebb pedig gy��z – és sajnos ez a gondolkodásmód átterjedt az üzlet és a politika szférájába is. Holott a gombák pont azt bizonyítják, hogy az élet kulcsa sokkal inkább az együttműködés, a „hálózatosodás” (by Barabási Albert László): a készség arra, hogy minél több kapcsolódási pontunk legyen a minket körülvevő világgal. Nem az izoláció, hanem a kooperáció a sikeres stratégia. Ezt mondják a gombák. És én hiszek nekik, mert akkor is itt éltek, amikor mi még pajzán gondolat se voltunk valami eukarióta fejében. És itt lesznek akkor is, amikor mi már egyáltalán nem leszünk. Yet as amazing as mushrooms are, they are just the above-ground extensions of the fungi below. The fungal world is a wild and fascinating place, and has shaped our environment in ways that we are only beginning to understand. The eight books below explore the Fungi Kingdom, sketch out its relationship to the human world, and reveal its paramount significance to life on this zany planet. Mycelium Running: How Mushrooms Can Help Save the World by Paul StametsSome fungi cannot be identified without a microscope, however those in this blog can be identified using macro characteristics displayed by the fruiting body. Most are umbrella or mushroom shaped with gills on the cap underside. Below are some key characteristics to look out for when identifying: Written for four to eight year olds, Mushroom Rain explores all of the ideas and interesting things about mushrooms that adults know and love. From the underground information networks to the wild and fascinating expressions of fungi in nature, your child will get an appreciation for the wonder that fungi inspire.

So, it’s time to start teaching your kids about the fungi kingdom. It’s certainly something that doesn’t always get enough attention. Not only is it a full kingdom of life, but it’s also one that gets a relatively bad name. We tend to think of fungi in limited terms, mostly imagining them as mushrooms, and poisonous ones at that. Fungi is an expansive and interesting kingdom, however. While this book is certainly a wonderfully accessible work on the science of fungi, Sheldrake goes an extra step to also be thought-provoking. He wants the readers to question certain things, like the definition of intelligence, see if they can shift their perspective on the world and its structure – all that by looking at how fungi grow, feed, mate and communicate.Best Nature Book: Nature’s Treasures: Tales of More Than 100 Extraordinary Objects from Nature by Ben Hoare OH MY GOSH you guys. I knew there was a reason I thought lichen was cool! It's basically the scientific equivalent of a medieval bodice ripper. SIGN ME UP. Fungi have highly powerful antiviral properties, the most stunning effect being when added to bees’ sugar water: “Adding a one percent extract of amadou (or Fomes) and reishi (Ganoderma, the species used to grow materials at Ecovative) to bees’ sugar water reduced deformed wings virus eighty-fold. Fomes extracts reduced levels of Lake Sinai virus nearly ninety-fold, and Ganoderma extracts reduced it forty-five thousand fold. Steve Sheppard, a professor of entomology at Washington State University and one of Stamets’s collaborators on the study, observed that he had not encountered any other substance that could extend the life of bees to this extent.” Admittedly, a lot of these criticisms are just my own personal prejudices, and other readers may not be bothered by them. Entangled Life was written well enough, even if it wandered, and if you're a reader interested in the more philosophical side of fungi, you will likely LOVE this. But I really just wanted the biology with a few side stories thrown in, so this wasn't my cup of tea. besides penicillin: cyclosporine (an immunosuppressant drug that makes organ transplants possible), cholesterol-lowering statins, a host of powerful antiviral and anticancer compounds (including the multibillion-dollar drug Taxol, originally extracted from the fungi that live within yew trees), not to mention alcohol (fermented by a yeast) and psilocybin (the active component in psychedelic mushrooms

I find this a horror, and want to assert our human need to do so, even if the ant experiences nothing that we should call suffering, and it is only as drama that the spectacle is appalling. The fact that Ophiocordyceps has evolved to do this and has no choice makes little difference. A creature’s perceptions and desires have turned into enemies steering it to its death. There is no symbiosis or negotiation. Even a farm animal, a free-range one anyway, has some agency while it lives, but this ant has none. It becomes purely a means to an end desired by another. Human beings sometimes do this, and other abominable things that they often succeed in regarding as right, or normal, or not worth noticing, yet humans alone, as far as we know, have a highly developed ability to see their own natural behaviour as wrong. Reading about the fate of these ants made me grab at the idea of a conscience, however imperfect, that makes us different from fungi, or from a male tiger killing a female’s cubs to bring her into season. I have a life-long love for and fascination with mushrooms. Partially because they are delicious, but I also remember finding them almost magical when I was a kid: they could appear overnight, had the strangest shapes, colors and textures. In my mind, they were almost like alien plants. Later, I learned a little bit about their complex interconnectedness, their adaptability and strange reproduction method – and that only made them more fascinating!

a b c Bone, Eugenia (22 May 2020). " 'Entangled Life' Review: Digging Into Enigmatic Organisms". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on 17 July 2020 . Retrieved 31 August 2020. There are between "2.2 and 3.8 million species of fungi in the world—six to ten times the estimated number of plant species", of which over 90% remain undocumented.