Paul Stamets

If you look on the fungal genome as being soldier candidates protecting the U.S. as our host defense, not only for the ecosystem but for our population... we should be saving our old-growth forests as a matter of national defense.

American Scientist

Chaga is one of the weirdest mushrooms you may ever see. A fungal parasite found on birch trees, Chaga is a hardened, blackened, crusty formation that looks like a bursting tumor.

The word 'fungal' is often used in biology and ecology to discuss organisms or ecosystems.

Biological Context

'Fungal' can imply something is unwelcome or damaging when talking about growth or infection.

Negative Implications

Not all fungi are bad. 'Fungal' also relates to beneficial or edible mushrooms.

Common Misconception

In medical contexts, 'fungal' often precedes conditions affecting the skin, nails, or lungs.

Health and Medicine

Treatments for 'fungal' conditions are specific and different from bacterial or viral ones.

Treatment Specificity

Many 'fungal' infections are contagious, which is important in healthcare settings.

Contagious Nature

 The enzymes remanufactured the hydrocarbons into carbohydrates -- fungal sugars. Some of these mushrooms are very happy mushrooms. They're very large. They're showing how much nutrition that they could've obtained. But something else happened, which was an epiphany in my life. They sporulated, the spores attract insects,

6 ways mushrooms can...

 Instead of trying to shield the human body, or rapidly repair damage, we could potentially engineer humans to adopt and express these fungal, melanin-based energy-harvesting systems. They'd then convert radiation into useful energy while protecting our DNA. This sounds pretty sci-fi,

Could we survive...

 the tools to help itself. Scientists have discovered that some bacteria and fungi can produce minerals, including the calcium carbonate found in autogenous healing. Experimental blends of concrete include these bacterial or fungal spores alongside nutrients in their concrete mix,

What if cracks in...

 Individuals of any age, sexual orientation, gender and race can contract HIV. Once inside the body, HIV infects cells that are part of the immune system. It particularly targets helper T cells, which help defend the body against bacterial and fungal infections.

Why it’s so hard to cure...

 that you can see the fungal tissue through the eye membrane. So this is a video of an ant this is a different species of ant. That's also been infected by this cordyceps fungus-- Ophiocordyceps fungus. It's in its last hour of life. It's just twitching there

Zombie Parasites PIPE Nat...

 can travel to a healthy plant and prompt it to turn on its immune system, too. These advance warnings increase the plants chance of survival. Bean plants also eavesdrop on each other's health through these fungal conduits. An aphid investation in one plant

Can plants talk to each...

 granting them lifespans as long as 41 years. Of course, bats aren’t totally invincible to disease, whether caused by bacteria, unfamiliar viruses, or even fungi. Bat populations have been ravaged by a fungal infection called white-nose syndrome,

Why bats don't get sick...

 In the worst cases, it causes death within a day. Fortunately, that’s rare for patients who receive early medical treatment. The disease primarily comes in three fungal, viral, and bacterial-- the last being the most deadly by far,

Why is meningitis so...

 Household dust also contains substances that blow in from the wider world. Depending on the local geology, finely ground quartz, coal, or volcanic ash might enter the air as atmospheric dust, along with pollen and fungal spores.

What is dust made of? -...

 developing underground these insects emerged in 2021 to a world dominated by a human pandemic little did they know that a different airborne killer would soon be coming for them microscopic fungal spores carry in the