tag > Mushroom
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The mushroom tunnel of Mittagong, photo by Nicola Twilley “Japanese researchers are closing in on understanding why electrical storms have a positive influence on the growth of some fungi,” Physics World reported last month, with some interesting implications for agriculture.
These electrical storms do not have to be nearby, and they do not even need to be natural: “In a series of experiments, Koichi Takaki at Iwate University and colleagues showed that artificial lightning strikes do not have to directly strike shiitake mushroom cultivation beds to promote growth.” Instead, it seems one can coax mushrooms into fruiting using even just the indirect presence of electrical fields.
As the article explains, “atmospheric electricity has long been known to boost the growth of living things, including plants, insects and rats,” but mushrooms appear to respond even to regional electrical phenomena—for example, when a distant lightning storm rolls by. “In Takaki’s previous studies, yield increases were achieved by running a direct current through a shiitake mushroom log. But Takaki still wondered—why do natural electric storms indirectly influenced [sic] the growth of mushrooms located miles away from the lightning strikes?”
Whether or not power lines or electricity-generation facilities, such as power plants, might also affect—or even catalyze—mushroom growth is not clear.
For now, Takaki is hoping to develop some kind of electrical-stimulation technique for mushroom growth, with an eye on the global food market.
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Antarctic fungi survive Martian conditions on the International Space Station
Section of rock colonised by cryptoendolithic microorganisms and the Cryomyces fungi in quartz crystals under an electron microscope.
European scientists have gathered tiny fungi that take shelter in Antarctic rocks and sent them to the International Space Station. After 18 months on board in conditions similar to those on Mars, more than 60% of their cells remained intact, with stable DNA. The results provide new information for the search for life on the red planet. Lichens from the Sierra de Gredos (Spain) and the Alps (Austria) also travelled into space for the same experiment.
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Lion's Mane Dreams
Lion's Mane Mushroom (Hericium erinaceus) can have profound effects on sleep, leading to vivid and lucid dreams that involve extended periods of flying with pristine control - an awe inspiring experience that surpasses any computer-generated simulation.
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Kombucha electrical spiking paper. Moving towards deciphering language of kombucha zoogleal mats. #Comment: In the near future people will start to appreciate that we are surrounded by highly complex communities of alien beings that together are super intelligent... and taste excellent.
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A parasitic fungus erupts from the body of a fly in the Tambopata National Reserve in Peru. Evolutionary biologist Roberto García Roa captured the shot, which won this year’s BMC Ecology and Evolution image competition. The spores of the ‘zombie’ fungus infiltrate the fly’s exoskeleton and brain and compel it to migrate to a location that is more favourable for the fungus’s growth.
